This Week at Democracy Docket: A Major Win for Democracy — and the Coming Attack on Mail Voting

By Zachary Roth

EAST BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY – NOVEMBER 04: New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) (C-L) celebrates with lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Dale Caldwell (C-R) after their win during an election night watch party at the Hilton East Brunswick Hotel on November 4, 2025 in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Sherrill defeated Republican assembly member Jack Ciattarelli in a tightly contested race for New Jersey governor. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

From Virginia up to Maine, New Jersey out to California, and plenty of places in between, Tuesday was a great night for democracy — and an awful night for President Donald Trump.

Democracy Docket loved tracking every win — and explaining what it all amounted to. But we did a lot else this week, too.

When the White House confirmed Tuesday that Trump will issue another anti-voting executive order — this one likely targeting mail voting — Democracy Docket’s Jim Saksa was on top of it.

And, unlike the rest of the press corps, Jim also flagged another sign that Republicans are coming for mail ballots: comments from a top GOP congressman, made at a panel hosted by a right-wing think tank, that he’s working on a bill to bar states from allowing grace periods for mail votes that arrive after Election Day.

Meanwhile, Missouri’s secretary of state proposed blatantly biased ballot language for a referendum that aims to block the GOP’s recent gerrymander — including falsely telling voters that the Republican map “better reflects statewide voting patterns.” Democracy Docket’s Jen Rice, who has been all over the redistricting beat, brought you that news.

Jen also spotlighted a quiet move by the Republican operative who now runs North Carolina’s election board to hire yet more partisan GOPers at the expense of the board’s widely respected nonpartisan staff — several of whom have left, or been ousted or sidelined, in recent months. It’s the latest step in the board’s transformation into an arm of state Republicans’ political operation. And it’s the kind of story that other outlets won’t even notice — but we’ll explain exactly why it matters.

Democracy Docket’s Yunior Rivas zeroed in on the national GOP’s top mapmaker, Adam Kincaid — who was hired by the RNC to draw Texas’ recent gerrymander, among others — making a public pitch to Republican donors to bankroll yet more gerrymanders. “If you’re looking for a return on your investment,” Kincaid promised, “redistricting is second to none when it comes to the value for what you can accomplish.”

These are the types of stories about Republican schemes to undermine democracy — many of them on the state level, and not attracting much attention even there — that few others will cover. But we think they’re crucial for understanding the multi-faceted campaign that has brought us to this dangerous point. 

With a year to go until the midterm — and Trump and the GOP deeply unpopular — these schemes to thwart the will of voters are only going to get more numerous and more brazen. And we’ll keep tracking them every step of the way.