Newsom says new federal probe puts him on Trump’s ‘hit list’

• The DOJ’s alleged investigation into Newsom and his wife marks the department’s latest high-profile probe against one of the president’s political foes. Newsom has been a vocal opponent of Trump’s attacks on democracy nationwide.
  
  
• In a video statement, the California governor said the investigation was initiated “not because they found a crime, but because they’re simply trying to find one.” 

• Why Newsom says the investigation is retaliation >>>

Also in California: State sues to block county’s extreme anti-voting policies ahead of the midterms

• Voters in Republican-leaning Shasta County approved a ballot initiative earlier this month that tried to ban mail and early voting, even though states set voting policy.
  
  
• The state sued in response and is urging a California appeals court to move quickly to resolve the case and prevent harm to voters in November’s general election.
  
  
• More on the county’s “unlawful” initiative >>>

Court tosses MAGA lawsuit seeking access to Georgia’s election operations center

• A Fulton County judge threw out a conspiracy-fueled lawsuit seeking to open Georgia's election-night operations center — where votes are received and published — to far-right observers.
  
  
• Here’s what the judge said in her dismissal order >>>

ICE agents accessed voter files in Texas and North Carolina

• Election officials from Forsyth County, North Carolina, and Webb County, Texas, gave voter file information to agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations unit.
  
  
• Dispatching ICE agents to obtain personal voter files is the latest federal incursion into states’ and counties’ constitutional authority over managing elections.
  
  
• Why this move “should concern everyone” >>>

Trump repeats demand that GOP pass anti-voting SAVE America Act, despite losing recent votes

• Over the weekend, Trump threatened to veto the reauthorization of a key national security law if his favorite anti-voting measure was not included in the legislation.
  
  
• Though Trump has called the SAVE America Act his “No. 1 priority,” it has repeatedly failed in the Senate.
  
  
• What else did Trump say? >>>

Court sanctions far-right lawyers over ‘frivolous’ bid to force Wisconsin out of ERIC

• A far-right group, the 1789 Foundation, attempted to ban the state from sharing certain voter data with ERIC, a respected voter information-sharing database.
  
  
• The court called some of the 1789 Foundation’s assertions “legally and factually frivolous.”
  
  
• The latest on the lawsuit’s dismissal >>>

Women offer away their right to vote at Turning Point USA conference

• Several women said they’d be willing to give up their right to vote if it meant creating a more conservative country during the Christian Right mega-convention in Texas over the weekend. Yikes!
  
  
• More on the troubling views shared >>>

Trump endorses Rep. Mike Collins, a diehard election denier, in Georgia GOP U.S. Senate runoff

• The president’s endorsement of Collins is just the latest example of how he’s using 2020 election denialism to mold Congress in order to more easily pass anti-voter legislation that the Senate has — so far — rejected.
  
  
• More on Trump’s endorsement of Collins >>>

Arizona advances voter ID ballot measure for November

• A ballot proposal pushed by Republicans that would mandate photo identification for voting, even for mail-in and absentee ballots, passed early Saturday.
  
  
• Arizonans will get a chance to vote on the measure during this year’s midterms.
  
  
• Why the proposal could open the door to “no more mail-in voting” >>>

Here we share noteworthy briefs on all things voting rights and democracy. Have a footnote for us? Send it to newsletters@democracydocket.com.

• Trump’s $14 million project to paint the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington D.C. is already facing algae problems so big that they threaten to make the whole thing a giant waste of money.
  
  
• Folks have a bleak vision for the future of the country, and a record low number of people say they are extremely proud to be Americans, according to a new poll by NBC News.
  
  
• Ahead of the UFC fight at the White House Sunday, the Trump administration picked a fight with the Weather Channel… for reporting the weather.
  
  
• We’ve been calling Trump’s anti-voting SAVE America Act a nightmare all along. But now even Republicans are saying that out loud — because the failed bill just won’t die: “It just keeps coming back,” one Senate Republican complained to NOTUS. “It’s like the ‘Night of the Living Dead.’”