Black voters urge Supreme Court to reject Alabama’s last-minute bid to revive intentionally racist map

• Black voters in Alabama urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the state’s emergency request to use a congressional map with only one majority-Black district in the midterms.
  
  
• The map was previously found to have intentionally discriminated against Black voters, which remains unconstitutional even after the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

• The latest in Alabama >>>
  

Exclusive: New data shows U.S. lags far behind peers on voting access

• The U.S. stands alone among peer nations in having no nationwide requirements for many pro-voting policies, according to new research published by Democracy Docket.
  
  
• Those include: automatic registration, paid time off to vote, election scheduling on a weekend or public holiday, early in-person voting, standardized poll hours or widely available postal voting.

• More key findings, only for Democracy Docket readers >>> 

Election denier Tina Peters released from prison, immediately tells Bannon Democrats ‘cheat’

• Tina Peters, the former Colorado GOP election clerk convicted for her role in a 2021 voting system breach, was released from prison today, after Gov. Jared Polis (D) commuted her sentence last month.
  
  
• Minutes after being released, Peters appeared on the podcast of former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon, where she continued to espouse conspiracy theories that Democrats rigged voting machines.
  
  
• What else did Peters say? >>>

In South Carolina, Trump’s pick for governor has an elaborate plan for voter suppression

• Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in a crowded GOP primary race for South Carolina governor.
  
  
• The crowd included several election deniers, including Evette, whose campaign platform entails perhaps the most elaborate plan for voter restrictions and suppression of all the other candidates.
  
  
• More on Evette’s voting restriction plans >>>

DOJ must inform the court of steps taken to implement Trump’s attack on mail voting

• In a pro-voting lawsuit challenging Trump's order attacking mail voting, a federal judge made it clear that the Department of Justice (DOJ) must inform the court of any steps taken to implement the policy.
  
  
• The directive comes after the U.S. Postal Service last week published a draft rule laying out plans for putting the order into effect.
  
  
• Learn more about the case >>>

Callais just gutted the promise of equal representation. But we need to keep fighting for multiracial democracy

• After the Supreme Court eviscerated the VRA in Louisiana v. Callais last month, at least 40 House districts represented by Black lawmakers are now at risk of elimination.
  
  
• If we want a multiracial democracy, we need to fight and win, Sara Rohani, assistant counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, writes.
  
  
• Why the decision deserves “our fury and our action” >>>

Judge probes whether Trump defrauded the court to create $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization' fund

• A federal judge is probing whether Trump’s lawyers made the court a “victim of a fraud” by colluding through his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to create the controversial “anti-weaponization” fund.
  
  
• The judge opened the inquiry Friday evening, giving Trump’s lawyers until June 12 to respond to allegations that they deceived the court to obtain the $1.8 billion settlement.
  
  
• More on the judge’s inquiry >>>

Wisconsin warns USPS over ‘unusually long’ mail voting delays

• The Wisconsin Elections Commission is sounding the alarm about the “unusually long time” it took for absentee ballots to reach their assigned voters by mail in the state’s April primaries.
  
  
• More about the “widespread” concerns about delivery times >>>

SCOTUS won’t hear request to revive challenge from Black voters over Georgia utility commission elections

• SCOTUS declined a second request from Black voters to hear their challenge to the at-large method for electing Public Service Commission members in Georgia.
  
  
• The 11th Circuit previously ruled the system did not violate the VRA. The Court likely declined due to its ruling gutting the landmark civil rights law.

• Learn more about the case >>>

DOJ appeals Massachusetts voter rolls lawsuit dismissal

• The DOJ appealed to the First Circuit after a federal district court dismissed its lawsuit seeking access to Massachusetts' unredacted statewide voter registration list.
  
  
• More about the lawsuit >>>

Coming up tomorrow

• A federal court will hear arguments in lawsuits brought by pro-voting groups and attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia on Trump’s executive order attacking mail-in voting.
  
  

• More on the case >>>