Republicans’ anti-democratic attacks are the new normal

Efforts to exert control over election administration and counting of votes is latest in alarming anti-democratic trends

Hello, and happy Thursday (and 2022),

Over the last few days, I've been reporting on Republicans' efforts to exert partisan control over election administration and the counting of votes, a new and deeply alarming anti-democratic trend.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, pledged there will be a vote on changing the filibuster rules by 17 January to pass voting rights legislation. It's unclear if Democrats will have enough support to change the rules.

A group of prominent election law scholars wrote an op-ed laying out how Congress can fix the Electoral Count Act, a confusing 19th-century law that Trump and allies tried to rely on to overturn the 2020 election. The law has remained unchanged since last year.

Texas quietly released the results of the first part of a review of the 2020 election on New Year's Eve. Officials didn't find much.

A Minnesota prosecutor is bringing criminal charges against a man who requested an absentee ballot in 2020 while on probation for a felony, but who never voted.

California authorities completed a months-long investigation into a man who was found passed out with 300 absentee ballots last summer, and said there was no evidence he intended to commit election fraud.