Democratic-Aligned Groups Sue Over Federal Crackdown on Voting

© Nicole Craine for The New York Times


© Nicole Craine for The New York Times

Liberal justice says recent decisions on redistricting and campaign finance have undermined democracy and polarized US even more
Elena Kagan criticized rulings made by the US supreme court’s conservative majority this week, arguing that its recent decisions on redistricting and campaign finance had undermined America’s democracy.
“The court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works,” said Kagan, one of the court’s three liberal justices, during a discussion at Catholic University’s law school in Washington DC on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
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© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finn Gomez/Getty Images

Coordination by Democratic officials overseeing elections includes Zoom calls and in-person tabletop exercises
Democratic state attorneys general, other top state officials and civic groups have accelerated planning to thwart any federal meddling in the November midterm elections by Donald Trump as he continues his false charges of widespread voting fraud and veiled threats of interfering in the process.
Since early this year, 24 Democratic attorneys general have expanded coordination with about a dozen Democratic secretaries of state and several civic groups using weekly Zoom calls and in-person tabletop exercises to strategize about countering any federal intervention in the elections.
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© Photograph: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jason Redmond/AFP/Getty Images


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Crackdown marks latest escalation in the Trump justice department’s push to target alleged noncitizen voting
The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots.
The crackdown marks another escalation in the federal government’s ongoing efforts against alleged noncitizen voting, efforts that Democrats and voting rights groups say are part of a strategy by the Trump administration to sow doubt in the results of the upcoming midterm elections.
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© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Protesters held rallies across the US as part of the 'No Kings' movement, voicing opposition to the Trump administration and calling for early voting ahead of November's midterm elections. The rallies coincide with heightened legal battles surrounding voting rules, including a recent federal lawsuit filed against California regarding mail-in ballots and warnings from the justice department concerning ballot processing. Current opinion polls suggest Democrats will win the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterms, while the Senate remains too close to call
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© Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

© Photograph: VCG/Getty Images


© Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times

Justice department warns election officials of prosecution if they ‘knowingly tabulate ballots’ cast by noncitizens
The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month’s midterm elections, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The letter on Friday from senior justice department officials and obtained first by the Associated Press is the latest salvo in an ongoing tussle with heavily Democratic California, coming just a day after the Trump administration sued the state to prevent it from counting mail-in ballots from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
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© Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Coalition has planned more than 3,000 events on Saturday to encourage voting before election day
The coalition that has drawn millions of Americans into the streets to fight for democracy over the past two years is shifting its strategy this weekend.
On Saturday, No Kings organizers and partners will hold thousands of events across all 50 states and Washington DC to get people to the polls early for the US midterm elections. With high-stakes races that will determine control of Congress, organizers say getting out the vote before election day can ease burdens on election workers and build confidence in voters, allowing them to avoid hiccups such as long lines and potential election threats.
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© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images


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DoJ had demanded that LA county confirm citizenship of people on list in thumb drive, but officials refused
The US Department of Justice sued California on Thursday, seeking a court order to prevent the state from tabulating certain ballots cast in the midterm elections.
The suit came two days after the department made a specious demand to the state. On Tuesday, the department sent election officials in Los Angeles county a thumb drive with a handwritten password purporting to contain the names of noncitizens registered to vote. The department asked officials to confirm the citizenship of anyone on the list and set aside ballots from those whose status could not be confirmed. It gave the state 48 hours – an extremely narrow window – to take action. It did not provide details on how it came up with the names on the list. In its lawsuit, filed in federal court in the central district of California, the justice department said it had provided the state with more than 20,000 names of likely noncitizens.
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© Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Voting registration organizations accuse Texas officials of failing to ensure eligible voters can register properly
Texas election officials are struggling to process a massive backlog of nearly 600,000 voter registration applications after a major state computer system failure, just days before early voting is set to open on Monday and amid concerns about widespread voter suppression.
The disruption has raised serious concerns about the state’s voter registration system, with voting rights organizations accusing Texas officials of failing to ensure that eligible voters could properly register.
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© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images

© Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images


© Christopher Lee for The New York Times

Sabrina German, a poll official in Chatham county, details a typical election day, the pressure election workers face, and fallout from 2020 disputes
It’s not that Sabrina German doesn’t have political views. But as the director of voter registration for Chatham county, Georgia, talking politics is like breakdancing in traffic. “I don’t talk politics with anyone,” says German; she knows better.
America’s partisan minefield has trained much of the country – aside from that one uncle you avoid at weddings and funerals – to get pretty good at the art of political diplomacy in polite company.
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© Illustration: Eddie Guy/The Guardian

© Illustration: Eddie Guy/The Guardian

© Illustration: Eddie Guy/The Guardian


© Saumya Khandelwal for The New York Times

Judge says justice department policy of checking state voter rolls against a federal immigration database is unlawful
A federal judge ruled on Friday that the US justice department’s policy of collecting states’ unredacted voter rolls to check them against a federal immigration database is unlawful.
The ruling, by the US district judge Sparkle Sooknanan, was a setback for Donald Trump, who has pushed his administration to ramp up investigations into non-citizen voting ahead of the November midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake.
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© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

© Photograph: Daniel Cole/Reuters

State residents express anger at Republicans who allowed chaotic voting maps saga to unfold ahead of the midterms
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Eric Leventhal knows he’s going to vote for a Democrat in Congress when he goes to the polls in Missouri this November – the problem is he has no idea which candidate is going to be on his ballot.
In the state’s August primary, he voted for Fred Wellman, a Democrat running in the state’s second congressional district. But after a long and complicated legal battle sparked by Donald Trump’s desire to gain every advantage in the upcoming midterm contest, the districts have changed for the general election that will determine which party controls Congress. Leventhal said he lived right near the border of the first and second congressional district, so now he’s not sure which one he’s in.
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© Photograph: Michael Thomas/Getty Images

© Photograph: Michael Thomas/Getty Images


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NAACP files lawsuit after head of DoJ’s civil rights division says she hopes to send election monitors to polls
The Trump administration has been sued over its plans to deploy “a historic number” of election monitors to polling stations during next month’s midterm elections.
The bid “stands to jeopardize” the elections and could “interfere with the right of voters to participate in the election free from intimidation”, according to the NAACP, which filed a lawsuit against Harmeet Dhillon, head of the justice department’s civil rights division, who has said she hopes to send 1,000 monitors to midterm polling sites in November.
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© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images


© Will Warasila for The New York Times

Former and current officials who bolstered claims of voter fraud in 2020 make fresh allegations of vulnerabilities
Prominent election deniers have spent recent weeks stoking fears over US election security before next month’s midterms, echoing claims pushed by Donald Trump to justify asserting more control over voting.
On conservative-friendly media outlets, former or current officials who tried to bolster the US president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020 have in recent weeks made fresh allegations of election vulnerabilities.
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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images


© Adnan Abidi/Reuters


© Adnan Abidi/Reuters