This week at Democracy Docket: Trump wants to ‘take over’ voting, while GOPers unveil a massive new suppression measure

By Zachary Roth

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (2nd R), Republican of Louisiana, speaks alongside Republican Conference Chair Representative Lisa McClain (L), Republican of Michigan, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (2nd L), Republican of Minnesota, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R), Republican of Louisiana, during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

Democracy Docket spent the week on some longer-term planning as we get set for the midterms. But it was another busy few days for voting and democracy news, and our reporters still found time to stay on top of it all.

President Donald Trump kicked off the week with one of his clearest statements yet that, with polls looking bad for the GOP, he wants to take control of this year’s elections. In fact, he could hardly have been clearer. “We should take over the voting,” Trump told a far-right interviewer. Read the report from Democracy Docket’s Yunior Rivas.

House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to welcome Trump’s comments. Johnson pretended not to understand how voting-counting works, falsely claiming that several 2024 election wins by Democrats appear “fraudulent” because the GOP candidate was ahead before the counting of legal ballots that arrived after Election Day. Read the report from Democracy Docket’s Jim Saksa.

And Steve Bannon jumped on Trump’s words to warn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will “surround the polls” this fall. Read the report from Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen.

It’s no coincidence that House Republicans also chose this week to introduce by far the most restrictive voting legislation any major party has ever seriously proposed. The Save America Act, which is set for a vote this week, would require documentary proof of citizenship not only for those registering but for voters at the polls — disenfranchising anyone who doesn’t bring their passport or original birth certificate when they vote. After an outcry, the measure was scaled back to only require voters to show a photo ID — college IDs aren’t allowed, of course — but it still would almost certainly keep huge numbers of eligible would-be voters from casting a ballot. Read Jim’s report.

Meanwhile, a federal judge officially rejected the Trump administration’s bid to gain access to Oregon’s voter rolls. And his forceful ruling, asserting that the Department of Justice can no longer be trusted on the issue, could reverberate in the numerous similar lawsuits filed against other states.

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai cited the letter to Minnesota sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which linked the ICE operation there to the state’s refusal to hand over its own voter rolls. 

“The context of this demand within a letter about immigration enforcement casts serious doubt as to the true purposes for which Plaintiff is seeking voter registration lists in this and other cases, and what it intends to do with that data,” Kasubhai wrote. Read Yunior’s report.

Separately, Fulton Co., Georgia pushed back against the shocking recent FBI raid of its elections hub, which was driven by false conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote. The county filed a motion seeking the return of the ballots and other election materials that the Feds confiscated. Read the report from Democracy Docket’s Jacob Knutson.

And finally, some huge news on the coast-to-coast Trump-driven redistricting contest we’ve been covering closely. The Supreme Court dismissed a GOP challenge to California’s new congressional map, which was drawn to counter Republican gerrymanders in Texas and elsewhere, and which could give Democrats five new seats. The decision means that, for now at least, Dems have fought Trump’s gerrymandering war to a rough draw. But there’ll be many more key developments to come. Read the report from Democracy Docket’s Jen Rice.