This week at Democracy Docket: DOGE, True the Vote, and blackmailing Minnesota

Late Update, 2/6/26: A True the Vote representative contacted Democracy Docket and asked that references to it be removed from this story. The representative denied that True the Vote “was directly involved in unlawful data sharing and election-related misconduct” and wrote that the language in this story “propagate[s] the misleading impression that TTV was centrally involved in the alleged agreement and associated misconduct.”

In its reporting, Democracy Docket has never asserted the identity of the group involved in the agreement.

This week brought a stunning revelation about the Trump administration co-ordinating with election deniers to put voters’ personal data at risk. And Democracy Docket played a key role in pushing the story forward.

On Tuesday, Yunior Rivas told you about new legal filings containing a shocking admission from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ): Back in March, employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agreed to team up with a political group to analyze state voter rolls in an attempt to find non-citizens and overturn election results. 

The filings didn’t name the group, and several prominent election denial organizations have called for the Trump Administration to use Social Security data to audit voter rolls and challenge election results.

We unearthed a slew of public communications from the election denier group True the Vote, issued during the period in question, pleading with DOGE to use government databases to look at voter rolls the group had obtained. 

Our Wednesday report floating True the Vote as the likeliest suspect resonated widely, adding even more momentum to the story. 

True the Vote later responded to us to deny that they were the group involved.

By Thursday, Yunior was reporting that Democrats in Congress and several pro-democracy advocacy groups had announced probes of the issue. One, Democracy Forward*, has filed a public records request for the voter data agreement, as well as for any communications between DOGE and True the Vote. 

You can be sure that much more is going to come out about this deeply troubling episode and the threat it posed to voters. And Democracy Docket will bring you every detail.

Of course, Musk’s DOGE may have largely imploded, but the world’s richest man is still boosting efforts to suppress voting. As Democracy Docket’s Jim Saksa reported, Republicans are reviving their push to pass the SAVE Act — and Musk has been promoting the cause to his 230 million followers on X. 

The monster GOP voter suppression law has stalled in the Senate after being approved by the House last year. But. emboldened by President Donald Trump, Republicans aren’t backing down — in fact they’re talking about introducing a new, even more restrictive version of the measure. Considering that historians told us the original bill was the worst attack on voting rights the U.S. has ever seen, that’s a scary proposition.

Jim also brought us the latest comments from Trump that the legacy media have shrugged at: his claim that “people will soon be prosecuted” over the 2020 election. Remember that, just last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that federal prosecutors in Florida are probing an expansive list of Trump’s enemies.

Meanwhile, Democracy Docket’s Jen Rice was in Houston, where, thanks to GOP scheming, the year’s most confusing election is taking place. It’s a special election runoff in a safely Democratic district to replace a congressman who died last year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) delayed the contest for so long, though, in order to deny Democrats a seat in Congress, that it’s now bumping up against this year’s primary. But many of the district’s voters will be in a new district for that election, thanks to the Trump-driven gerrymander conducted by state Republicans last year and blessed by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

As one voter told Jen: “It’s hard to keep up. It really is.” And it’s all down to GOP politicians putting political power over the needs of voters. 

And Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen, who tracks the sordid world of anti-voting activism, warned about Cleta Mitchell’s latest scheme. The influential election denier is mobilizing her network to go after vote centers — the large, county-wide voting sites that have expanded access and reduced voter confusion in numerous states. The attack on vote centers, it appears, is aimed at laying the groundwork for an even more dangerous long-term goal, which many on the right are starting to voice: to end mail and early voting and return the U.S. to the days of one-day, in-person elections.

Finally, Democracy Docket’s Jacob Knutson spent his Saturday reporting on the Trump administration’s sick new strategy: tying its ongoing war on Minnesota to its voter suppression campaign. 

The same day Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed yet another Minnesotan Saturday, Bondi sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz (D), claiming that he could “restore the rule of law” in his state by complying with a list of demands, including giving DOJ the state’s voter rolls. 

Earlier this week, Minnesota rejected DOJ’s demand for information on its same-day voter registration system. And, like many blue states, it has rebuffed the department’s bid to obtain its voter rolls. Now, it seems, the administration is turning up the pressure — using the implicit threat of more ICE-instigated violence as a tool of persuasion. 

*Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias serves as chair of Democracy Forward’s board.

This story has been updated.