Happy Thursday, and welcome back to The Franchise.
The Franchise is our newly resurrected weekly newsletter covering elections and voting rights as the Trump administration continues its assault on election administration, the franchise and democracy.
We’re glad you’re here.
This week, we’ll be looking at updates in the Department of Justice’s floundering campaign to get sensitive voter data from states across the country, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s new voter fraud tip line (yikes), and, of course, the latest in the never-ending redistricting battle.
Let’s get into it.
DOJ Voter Roll Campaign Faces (Another) Setback
West Virginia’s Republican Secretary of State, Kris Warner, is pushing back against the DOJ’s demand to hand over voter rolls to the federal government.
As a reminder, for months now, Trump’s Justice Department has been demanding that at least 44 states and Washington, D.C. hand over sensitive voter roll information, including social security numbers and driver’s license numbers. If this sounds like a highly unusual demand, that’s because it is.
The DOJ has not said what exactly they plan to do with this information. Either way, it’s not information they are entitled to.
So now some secretaries of state — Democratic and Republican alike — are pushing back and refusing to comply.
In a letter sent last week to Eric Neff, a lawyer in the DOJ’s voting section, Warner explained that “West Virginia law protects the sensitive and personally identifiable information of its voters, and the Secretary of State takes seriously his responsibility to safeguard such information from unauthorized disclosure.”
Meanwhile, Nebraska and Alaska are among the few states that have complied with the DOJ’s demand. In doing so, Alaska agreed to potentially remove voters from the rolls who have been flagged by the DOJ. The agreement, per reporting from the Alaska Beacon, states: “the Justice Department will securely notify you or your state of any voter list maintenance issues … i.e., that your state’s (list) only includes eligible voters.”
Ken Paxton’s Useless Election Fraud Tip Line
GOP Texas Attorney General and current Senate candidate Ken Paxton has launched an election fraud email tipline ahead of the midterm elections as a way to “protect the integrity of every legal vote.” This tip line will likely do everything but that.
More specifically, it will breed even more baseless election fraud claims and scare voters into thinking there is something wrong with our election system.
Unsurprisingly, Paxton, in his advisory, points to a favorite Republican election fraud talking point — the myth of non-citizen voting. It’s a narrative that has been disproven countless times, as TPM has reported, and there are also safeguards in place to protect against it. But Republicans refuse to put it to rest.
“Significant growth of the noncitizen population in Texas and a pattern of partisan efforts to illegally weaponize voter registration and the voting process to manipulate electoral outcomes have created urgent risks to local, state, and federal elections,” Paxton’s advisory reads.
Elections experts counter that this “tip line” seems completely pointless and counterintuitive.
“Examples of voter fraud and non-citizen voting, which it looks like is sort of a primary focus of this tip line, are so exceedingly rare as almost non-existently rare,” Michael McNulty, Policy Director for Issue One, explained. “So the question is what is the real purpose of these types of efforts?”
“What this can do is basically invite allegations based on disinformation, based on baseless claims,” he added.
And Justin Levitt, professor of law at Loyola Marymount University, had this to say about Paxton’s new initiative.
“He’s welcome to launch a website on extraterrestrial sightings too, and I suspect the information it collects will be just as valuable.”
Around the States: Redistricting
Virginia
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled last Friday that a statewide referendum on the state’s Democratic-led redistricting proposal can take place in April.
Although it’s a win for Democrats, who are spearheading the redistricting proposal, the state high court still has yet to rule on whether or not the proposal is legal.
A county circuit blocked Virginia’s redistricting effort last month. Democrats then appealed this ruling to the state court of appeals, which then sent the case to the state Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court has yet to make a final ruling on the matter.
On Wednesday, the RNC filed a lawsuit against Virginia election officials as a way to block April’s referendum, arguing that both the special election and the proposal are unconstitutional.
Utah
Utah Republicans have gathered enough signatures for a ballot measure that would repeal a 2018 anti-gerrymandering law which established the state’s independent redistricting commission.
As a reminder, in November, a judge rejected a GOP-favoring gerrymandered map. The judge instead approved a map that creates three Republican districts and one safely Democratic district.
On Wednesday, a panel of federal judges heard arguments about whether or not Utah’s congressional map can remain in place.
Colorado
A Democratic organization, Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, introduced a redistricting proposal on Wednesday, plunging Colorado into the ongoing redistricting battle.
The group introduced four versions of a November ballot measure to pave the way for Democratic-favoring congressional maps for 2028 and 2030. If approved, the maps would likely flip Republican districts into Democratic districts.
“Colorado can do nothing and remain a target of Trump’s retribution, or we can join these states in countering the power grab with temporary maps that will help keep our elections on a level playing field — while reaffirming our commitment to independent redistricting for the long term,” the group said in a statement.
New York
In a win for Democrats, a New York Appellate Court ruled on Thursday that a new redistricting proposal can move forward. The new map will likely give Democrats an additional seat in this year’s midterms.
In Other Election News
Deranged Trump Ally Blows Half His Campaign Cash on Own Book (The Daily Beast)
Republicans are eyeing major election changes. Trump’s mail voting crackdown isn’t one of them. (Politico)
Fulton County officials say FBI seizure of election records violated U.S. Constitution (CBS News)
