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The Jan. 6 committee’s final public hearing is next week. “The panel – comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans – has not yet provided an agenda, but Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said recently that the hearing would ‘tell the story about a key element of (former President) Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election,’ ” the Associated Press writes.
Since the last round of public hearings in June and July, the committee has interviewed conservative activist Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who maintained during her testimony that the 2020 election was stolen; has received 800,000 pages of communication materials from the Secret Service; and obtained text messages that show Roger Stone, a Trump ally, promoted violence around the 2020 election and then sought a pardon for his connection to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The committee also has key issues unresolved, like whether it will issue subpoenas to Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence or enforce subpoenas issued to Republican members of Congress who have refused to cooperate. And time is ticking. If Republicans take the majority in the midterm elections, it is expected that the committee will be dissolved. Either way, it plans to issue a “final report by the end of December that will include legislative reforms it says would help prevent future attempts to subvert democracy,” according to the AP.
Trump’s Big Lie is defining the stakes in most of the 35 states selecting their secretary of state (directly or indirectly) next month. “Seventeen Republicans are running for secretary of state – or for governor in states where the governor appoints the secretary – after denying the results of the 2020 election, seeking to overturn them, or refusing to affirm the outcome. A handful of additional Republicans haven’t outright questioned (President Joe) Biden’s win but have still amplified Trump’s false statements about widespread fraud,” Bolts writes in its new secretary of state guide.
As the chief election officials in their states, secretaries of state often handle election administration. Regardless, they have the potential to cause election chaos. In its guide, Bolts explains how officials could affect the outcome of elections far beyond election subversion.
Plus: Listen to this Reveal episode to understand how one of these candidates, Kristina Karamo, rose to power and the influence she could have in Michigan if she wins.
Indictments in the big investigation into Trump’s election meddling could come in December. “The Georgia probe – set off by an hour-long January 2021 phone call from Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to ‘find’ the votes necessary for Trump to win the Peach State – has steadily expanded. It now covers presentations on unfounded election fraud claims to state lawmakers, the fake elector scheme, efforts by unauthorized individuals to access voting machines in one Georgia county and a campaign of threats and harassment against lower-level election workers,” CNN reports.
A case that challenges the Voting Rights Act was heard this week in the Supreme Court. So what happened? Last week, we dove deep into Merrill v. Milligan, the Alabama redistricting case that could gut what’s left of one of the prized pieces of legislation that came out of the civil rights era. After oral arguments, SCOTUSblog writes that the conservative judges will likely rule in favor of Alabama, striking a big blow to the act.
🗣️ Want to suggest a story or topic explainer for our next issue? Is there a specific democracy issue you want us to curate reporting around? Do you have a question about a certain state and its election? Anything goes. Email us at [email protected].
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