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SPONSORED MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WISCONSIN*

Franchise readers, Wisconsin is ground zero in the fight for voting rights: whether we beat back far-right attacks on the freedom to vote could determine the future of our democracy. Add your name to help us fight back.

Hello readers!

First: Thank you for sticking with us. This is the 50th installment of The Franchise, and I’m grateful to have an outlet to share in-depth voting rights news with an engaged group of people.

To the news: Florida’s governor wants to eliminate a plurality-Black congressional district in Northern Florida. But it’s about much more than one district.

Got a voting rights story you think our readers should hear? Respond to this email and tell me about it.

Alright, let’s dig in.

Florida Seeks To Carve Up Plurality Black District

The big news out of FLORIDA last week was a state judge striking down Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gerrymandered congressional maps. DeSantis has for months fought to eliminate a plurality-Black congressional district in Northern Florida, but Judge J. Layne Smith ruled that this would violate the Florida constitution’s anti-gerrymandering amendments, which prohibit diminishing the political power of minorities. 
 

But DeSantis and his team, who’ve appealed the decision, aren’t worried about one district. They want to challenge the state constitution, and, through that, the Voting Rights Act, the language of which is mirrored almost verbatim in the state’s anti-gerrymandering amendments.

Smith pointed out in his ruling that “the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly assumed that compliance with the VRA constitutes a compelling state interest,” and, because of the similarities between the two texts, so too is compliance with Florida’s state constitution.  

But Florida’s lawyers have flipped this on its head: “Assumed! Never actually held it specifically,” a lawyer for the state, Mohammad Omar Jazil, noted during a hearing last week.

We’re going to do some more reporting on this, so keep an eye out. But for now, consider the words of the governor himself in March: “I think our dispute very well may lead to saying that Florida’s redistricting amendments are not consistent with the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.” 

Let’s Take A Close Look At Georgia

Two stories out last week, in The Guardian and The Washington Post, point to a widespread pattern of election conspiracy theory adherence at the county election administrator level in GEORGIA.

The Guardian, surveying the internet presences of election administrators, found eight county election officials in the state who’ve said they believe the election was stolen. From the story: 

• one election official who has posted in support of a discredited election conspiracist who believes the alleged presence of bamboo in paper ballots is proof they came from Asia, and thus show interference from China;
• two officials who tried, on the basis of bogus fraud allegations, to decertify the results of the January 2021 runoff that resulted in the election of the state’s first Black senator;
• one official who insisted that Georgia’s election laws needed to change if Republicans were going to “have a shot” at winning future elections.

The Washington Post reported on one case, in Coffee County, where an election official simply let some random guy around in the room that houses the computer that tabulates the county’s election results.

Why? “I’m not a babysitter,” she told The Post.

Around The States

SPONSORED MESSAGE FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WISCONSIN*

Franchise readers, Wisconsin is ground zero in the fight for voting rights: whether we beat back far-right attacks on the freedom to vote could determine the future of our democracy. Add your name to help us fight back.

A court-appointed special master has taken a blender to NEW YORK’s congressional districts, making the map friendlier for Republicans, and also redrawing several districts held by Democratic lifers like Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who could now face off in a single district.

Separately, civil rights groups are pressing New York legislators to get behind a voting rights package, though it’s far from a done deal. 
 

TEXAS legislators held a hearing on the impact of their new election law — but did not discuss the sky-high absentee ballot rejection rate. 
 

Also in Texas: Crystal Mason, who faces five years behind bars for voting while on probation in 2016, is getting another shot at justice: Texas’ highest criminal court ordered a review of her case.

Every MISSOURI voter will now have to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls, according to a new law. As the Missouri Independent notes, “the bill is the latest in a 15-year Republican effort to enact a photo ID requirement to vote in Missouri. Legislation has passed several times, but it’s never been able to fully withstand legal challenges.”
 

Kory Langhofer, the former Trump campaign attorney, is representing the ARIZONA Republican Party as it attempts to join the legal battle over Republicans’ new law to require proof-of-citizenship from all voters in the state, despite Supreme Court precedent to the contrary. 
 

COLORADO legislators sent an election security bill to Gov. Jared Polis’ (D) desk. 

FLORIDA’s secretary of state will resign ahead of an anticipated run for Congress. Gov. DeSantis said he would replace outgoing Secretary Laurel Lee with state Rep. Cord Byrd, who DeSantis called a “staunch advocate for election security, public integrity, the fight against big tech censorship and the de-platforming of political candidates.” Byrd, an attorney, calls himself “the Florida Gun Lawyer” and has quite the reputation. 
 

DeSantis’ redistricting gambit could add a bunch of likely GOP seats to Florida’s congressional delegation, but it’s not just him: COLORADO, ALABAMA and NEW YORK have all contributed to a late Republican surge in the redistricting wars, as we explained in a report last week. 

The Latest In Election Sabotage

A GEORGIA judge laughed Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate David Perdue out of court, saying his request for a “forensic investigation” of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots consisted of “speculation, conjecture and paranoia — sufficient fodder for talk shows, op-ed pieces and social media platforms, but far short of what would legally justify a court taking such action.” 
 

The partisan investigator looking into WISCONSIN’s 2020 election results got another contract extension — this one without an end date. Somewhat ironically, it now seems that as long as people are suing Michael Gableman, he can keep receiving a state paycheck. 
 

It’s a Big Lie-off: One contractor hired for ARIZONA Republicans’ so-called “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results referred to another’s work as “utter rubbish,” newly public records show. 
 

Tina Peters, the COLORADO county clerk who’s simultaneously running for secretary of state and facing a multi-count indictment for allegedly breaching election security protocols, has been barred by a judge from overseeing the 2022 elections in her county. Peters was barred in 2021 as well. 
 

Also in Colorado, a judge has greenlit a lawsuit against U.S. Election Integrity Plan, a group of Peters’ allies who’ve been going door-to-door in search of fraud and, allegedly, intimidating voters. 
 

A pair of Republican operatives in PENNSYLVANIA were fired over a shifty mail-in ballot operation. 

TPM: Trump’s 2020 Coup Failures Could Be 2024 Successes
 

Houston Chronicle: It was a top voter fraud case in Texas, used in Austin to pass laws. Then it just fizzled.

*Paid for by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Wisdems.org. Not authorized by any candidate’s campaign or committee. Donations to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin are not tax deductible.

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