It's Up to Us

This Week in Democracy

• The?U.S. Supreme Court?unanimously ruled?that Colorado?cannot disqualify?former?President Trump?from the state’s Republican primary ballot under the?14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.”?The decision will in effect reverse rulings in?Illinois?and?Maine?that disqualified Trump from their primary ballots. ?

• Two of the most dangerous Election Deniers of 2024 gained ground on Super Tuesday. Trump became the?presumptive Republican nominee for president?after former U.N. Ambassador?Nikki Haley?dropped out of the race. In North Carolina, Lt. Gov.?Mark Robinson,?an Election Denier,?won the Republican primary for governor. ???READ:?ElectionDeniers.org ?

• States United Action?released?States of Denial,a new report tracking Election Denier state legislators?in the seven states at the center of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The report found?202 Election Deniers?holding office in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. ???READ:?States of Denial ?

• In?President Biden’s?State of the Union address, he called out present threats to American democracy and called on Congress to defend against them.?“You can’t love your country only when you win,”?he said. “I ask all of you, without regard to party, to join together and defend democracy. Remember your oath of office and defend against all threats, foreign and domestic.”

It's Up to Us

This week’s?Supreme Court ruling?about the 14th Amendment settled a complex question for our democracy. But the ruling didn’t change much about the process of the 2024 election.?

Donald Trump will be on the ballot for the remaining presidential primaries, just as he was for the primaries before the ruling. Those primaries will be free, fair, and secure, just like always. So will the November general election. Meanwhile, efforts to hold Trump accountable for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election will go forward in federal and state criminal courts.?

By dismissing a challenge to Trump’s eligibility, the ruling did provide state election officials with much-needed clarity. It takes months of thoughtful planning to make sure elections run smoothly, and election officials can now get on with that work.

But the bottom line of this election year is the same as it’s always been: The final decision about Trump and his Election Denier movement will be in the hands of American voters.?It’s up to us.

States of Denial

States set the rules of the road for our elections. That means Election Deniers can do a lot of harm to our elections when they serve in state legislatures, which are tasked with setting the laws that govern voting procedures and election administration.?

Unfortunately, Election Deniers are more than just a scattered presence in state capitols, according to a report?released this week?by States United Action, with research support from Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy.?

The report focused on the seven states at the center of the plot to overturn the 2020 election. It found?202 Election Deniers?serving in those states’ legislatures. Not surprisingly, many have promoted bills that would damage nonpartisan election administration. In various ways, all have damaged trust in our elections.?

Voters in those seven states can find out?which of their representatives?do or do not believe in respecting election outcomes. For voters everywhere, the report is a reminder that Election Deniers are a danger to democracy—no matter where on the ballot they appear.

State of the States

In Arizona,?prosecutors issued new subpoenas to people linked to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to?new reporting from Politico. The subpoenas are a sign that Attorney General Kris Mayes’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state is continuing.

In Wisconsin,?former Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and James Troupis turned over more than?1,400 pages of documents, emails, and text messages?that detail the origins of the plot that attempted to use false presidential electors to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. The documents were released as part of a?settlement?with two of Wisconsin’s rightful electors.

In the News

• The New York Times:?Trump’s Allies Ramp Up Campaign Targeting Voter Rolls “It really is aimed at being able to cast doubt on the results after the fact,” said?Joanna Lydgate,?the chief executive of?States United Democracy Center,?a nonpartisan organization. “But also, before the election itself, at being able to shape who turns out and how they turn out.” ?

• Michigan Advance:?Report classifies one-fifth of Michigan Legislature as ‘election deniers’ States United Action,?a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a mission to protect elections, issued the report Thursday using data collected with the assistance of Penn State University’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy. It found 202 “election deniers” currently serving as state legislators in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. ?

• NBC News:?A federal agency has told rural counties and small towns how to safeguard their elections, but not all can afford the fixes ?

• The Guardian:?A far-right US youth group is ramping up its movement to back election deniers ?

• 11Alive:?Fulton County Board of Ethics does not hear DA Fani Willis complaints, saying it lacks jurisdiction ?

• Votebeat Texas:?‘Are you kidding me’: Gillespie County Republican hand count stretched into early morning hours ?

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:?Wisconsin Supreme Court rejects move to reconsider state’s congressional maps ?

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:?Officials in Pa., around the U.S. race to secure elections in ‘a new era’ of unprecedented threats ?

• The Detroit News:?Judge rejects challenge of Michigan's ‘reasonable’ process for dead voter removal

Clip of the Week

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow?highlighted?States United CEO?Joanna Lydgate’s?interview with The New York Times about anti-democratic efforts to remove voters from voter rolls.

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