Hearing is resuming in which Jim Hoft is answering questions under oath about the finances of Gateway Pundit. It's off to a slow start -- Hoft is struggling to say whether he helped prepare or is familiar with amonthly operating report filed in the case storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… Trustee also notes the document under question is "unsigned and unfinished"

Voters are pouring in at a steady clip at a polling place in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin this morning. Every voter I spoke with pointed to abortion as their number 1 issue in today’s state Supreme Court race “I’m very concerned about my bodily autonomy and making sure that I’m voting for people who aren’t going to treat me like a second class citizen and can keep as many of my rights as possible” said one woman.

Polls are open today in Wisconsin for the state's supreme court election. For months, @GuardianUS been covering it as the most consequential race of 2023 theguardian.com/us-news/2023/a… @GuardianUS It's a race that will likely determine the fate of abortion in Wisconsin. It could also lead to getting rid of the state's legislative maps, which are so distorted in favor of Republicans it is virtually impossible for Democrats to ever win a majority. theguardian.com/us-news/2023/a…

Wow -- Ohio State University is advising students against voting in person on election day because Ohio's new strict voter ID rules could result in complications for their financial aid packages apnews.com/article/voter-… Update: OSU spox says "The AP article mischaracterizes a quote in the university’s student newspaper. Ohio State has not issued any guidance or advisement." (1/2)

Breaking news: A Miami judge dismissed one of the voter fraud cases trumpeted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this summer. This is the first case go forward on a motion to dismiss and a blow to the governor as the cases have come under scrutiny: theguardian.com/us-news/2022/o… Here is the ruling: documentcloud.org/documents/2317…

Maria Matthews, FL director of elections, testified that when someone registers, the SoE does an initial review to make sure the application is complete and do a baseline review of their identity. Then, the state is responsible for checking felon status documentcloud.org/documents/2226…

https://twitter.com/Mdixon55/status/1563537670432706560

According to her testimony, new registrants are checked against an FDLE database within 24 hours and then there is manual review to confirm any matches.

A few key differences in Ohio compared to the NC case before the court. Voters approved a constitutional amendment, placed on the ballot by the Ohio legislature, to give the Ohio supreme court jurisdiction over congressional redistricting (not the case in NC). (1/2)

https://twitter.com/jbalmert/status/1559975515070627843

2. Unlike NC supreme court, OH supreme court has not imposed a new congressional map in the state. It has sent the process back to OH lawmakers and is at an impasse because the GOP-controlled commission has been unable to produce a constitutionally-compliant map.

Jody Hice, mounting a strong challenge for the GOP nomination for GA SoS, told reporters after a debate today he didn't think there was anything wrong with Trump call to Raffensperger asking to find 11,780 votes. "Absolutely, there was nothing wrong with that request," Hice said. Hice downplayed the phone call, which is now the subject of an probe from the Fulton County DA. "The president was basically saying 'Brad Raffensperger do your job," Hice said. "He was not saying g'o out and ‘find illegal ballots for me’ He was saying look at all the fraud."

In Georgia SoS primary debate, Raffensperger presses Hice repeatedly on why he hasn't done anything on elections in Congress. Hice rebuts repeatedly by saying it's up to the states to run elections, not Congress. you can watch live here gpb.org/events/news/20…

On Monday, a judge in Memphis sentenced a woman to six years in prison for trying to register to vote. He said she had tricked the probation office into signing a form indicating she was eligible. You can watch some of the sentencing hearing here: wreg.com/news/local/mem… The case is enormously complicated. Tennessee has what are likely the most confusing rules around felon disenfranchisement in the US. If you have a felony, your ability to vote depends on what you were convicted of and when. It's very confusing: sos.tn.gov/elections/guid…

Looking through the Freedom to Vote Act to revisit exactly what it says about voter ID, a major point Republicans have seized on in messaging around the bill. One section (311) says you can't block someone from voting by mail because they lack adequate ID Another section (1801) says that states that offer voter ID can't block someone from voting at the polls if they don't have acceptable ID. Says they have to allow people to present "any applicable identifying document."...

New: Mississippi has the harshest felon disenfranchisement law in the country, blocking more than 235K people from voting. Over the last quarter century, fewer than 200 people have had their rights restored through the state's process, new data shows theguardian.com/us-news/2022/j… The impact on Black Mississippians is staggering. An estimated 16% of the Black voting age population can't vote because of a felony conviction. Even though African Americans make up about 1/3rd of the population, they account for more than 1/2 of those disenfranchised.

The WH sends out a long statement touting action its taken to "restore and strengthen American democracy" as Democrats have failed to pass two sweeping voting rights bills. The section on voting rights here is a little bit of accomplishment-padding Observers have noted that the accomplishments listed here are all welcome, but they're relatively small (the WH Is touting DoJ *issuing guidance* about already known laws, among other things).

New: Attorneys for Crystal Mason file a brief with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals arguing that SB 1, the new Texas voting law, clarifies that she should not be convicted of illegal voting for submitting a provisional ballot. search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.as… Mason is appealing a conviction and 5-year prison for illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election. Her case is currently pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in Texas.

Missed this -- Florida SoS Laurel Lee is arguing in court that private parties can't enforce Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, which guarantees assistance for people with disabilities at polls. Comes as Texas is arguing private parties can't enforce Section 2 of the VRA Filing democracydocket.com/wp-content/upl…

DOJ files a significant statement of interest in a Texas redistricting case, taking issue specifically with TX argument that there is no private right of action under Section 2 of the VRA. If courts were to embrace the idea that private plaintiffs can’t bring a section 2 suit it would significantly gut what remains of the VRA, experts say

Cyber Ninjas draft report flags more than 10,300 ppl as potential double voters based on name, and birth year. This is widely known as an unreliable method. It's been shown again and again by @ElectProject and others brennancenter.org/our-work/analy… @ElectProject This is a paper on this issue from 2008 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment to rein in partisan gerrymandering. But now Republicans are moving ahead with a partisan map w/o Democratic votes cincinnati.com/story/news/pol… The map preserves the GOP supermajority in the Ohio statehouse for at least another four years

Per statement from senate Dems, new voting legislation requires:

- automatic and online voter reg
- same-day reg
- no-excuse mail-in voting and drop boxes
- ID, with accommodations for people who don't have (not yet clear what details are)
- count prov. ballots in wrong pct - allow anyone with a felony conviction to vote once they are released from prison
- set stricter standards on how states can remove people from voter rolls
- protections for local election officials from partisan interference
- paper ballots

Good chart from the new EAVS survey showing the remarkable shift in 2020 of how people voted. Less than 1/3 of voters cast their ballots on election day - clear break from 2016 and 2018 when more than 1/2 did eac.gov/sites/default/… With more people than ever voting by mail, there was a lot of concern in early last year that many eligible voters would have their ballots rejected for technical reasons (forgetting to sign envelope, signature not matching, etc). theguardian.com/us-news/2020/j…

But...

Klobuchar says in press call that she, Manchin and Warnock met with Schumer this week and are "very close" on an agreement for the For The People Act Klobuchar says senate legislation will include provisions that address election subversion