This week at Democracy Docket: Trump’s citizenship lists could be in effect for the midterms

Last month, the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail voting by executive order. But it greenlit his administration’s use of a flawed immigration database to help states purge voters. 

Now, we’re waiting for a federal court to rule on a third prong of Trump’s voter suppression scheme — one you might not have heard as much about.

As Jacob Knutson reported, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a privacy rights group submitted opposing briefs Friday in a challenge to the administration’s plan to create state-by-state citizenship lists of eligible voters, using vast amounts of Americans’ personal data. 

The idea was included in the same March executive order that aimed to crack down on mail voting. It’s flown under the radar for much of the media, but we’ve been closely tracking litigation over the lists, which advocates warn could be used to disenfranchise eligible voters.

A court ruling could now come any time. And it may not be long before this case, too, is before the Supreme Court. 

But mail voting, too, still needs attention. As Jim Saksa explained, Trump’s U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has slowed down pickup and delivery times, boosting the chances that some ballots will reach election offices, or receive postmarks, too late to be counted. Rural voters are especially at risk. 

And, as Natalie Hausmann reported, USPS also has shortened the period during which it uses “extraordinary measures” to ensure election mail arrives on time. In 2022 and 2024, it began those measures 15 days before election day. Now, it’ll be just ten.

Then there’s what happens when mail ballots are counted. Jim dug into the numbers and found that in the last election, over 360,000 ballots were rejected for minor errors like a missing signature or an unsealed envelope. 

When you consider the wall-to-wall coverage that ensues whenever we learn about a tiny number of noncitizen votes, it’s pretty mind-boggling that hundreds of thousands of valid voters can be disenfranchised without anyone even noticing. Maybe that’s something that should change.

And then there’s Trump’s ongoing assault on voters living overseas. The administration illegally changed an overseas voting form, according to a new lawsuit covered by Alexandra Hutzler, so as to make it harder for Americans who have never lived in the U.S. to request and receive a ballot.

Separately, as Yunior Rivas exclusively reported, the administration removed from a government website state-by-state guidance telling these U.S. citizens whether they’re eligible to vote. 

Let’s be clear: Despite all these concerns, election officials and voting advocates are still telling people to vote by mail if that’s what makes sense for them. If you follow the rules and don’t send your ballot too late, it’s going to count. The most important thing — however you do it — is that you vote.

And with voting now underway, much of the action is shifting to the states. 

Jen Rice dug into the array of powers that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton might try to use to contest his U.S. Senate race should he lose it, as polls suggest he may. Most experts are confident that the courts could stand up to any such effort. But Paxton’s history as an aggressive election denier, as well as some specific authority given to the AG in Texas law, mean this is something we should be watching closely in the runup to November 3.

Meanwhile, as Jacob reported, Georgia’s election board this week asked the Trump administration to declare the state’s voting machines illegal. The board’s Republican majority is steeped in election denialism, and this is the latest step in their campaign to promote baseless fears about the system’s integrity. 

And Yunior brought us a wild voter suppression tale from New Jersey. A local Republican operative went to his county board of elections with a list of Democrats and unaffiliated voters who he wanted to target for voter eligibility challenges. And guess what? The board said ok, and went ahead and contacted the voters, requiring them to prove their residence or risk being unable to vote. Maybe that’s because the board chair also happens to chair the county GOP. That’s despite being convicted on tax evasion charges, for which he was pardoned by Trump.

Now the ACLU is charging that the voters were illegally targeted for their political affiliation and threatening a lawsuit.

Finally, here’s some positive news: When Kurt Olsen quit the Trump administration this week, he became the latest in a string of election deniers to leave the government. That’s a good thing in itself — but as Matt Cohen explained, there’s more to it than that. 

Trump hired Olsen — along with right-wing lawyers like Ed Martin and Joe diGenova at DOJ, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, and Andrew Bailey as a senior FBI official — at least in part to help him finally prove his case that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Despite having the vast resources of the federal government at their disposal, they have all now left after coming up empty.