{"id":9943,"date":"2026-02-08T12:37:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/08\/this-week-at-democracy-docket-trump-wants-to-take-over-voting-while-gopers-unveil-a-massive-new-suppression-measure-democracy-docket\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:37:42","slug":"this-week-at-democracy-docket-trump-wants-to-take-over-voting-while-gopers-unveil-a-massive-new-suppression-measure-democracy-docket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/08\/this-week-at-democracy-docket-trump-wants-to-take-over-voting-while-gopers-unveil-a-massive-new-suppression-measure-democracy-docket\/","title":{"rendered":"This week at Democracy Docket: Trump wants to \u2018take over\u2019 voting, while GOPers unveil a massive new suppression measure – Democracy Docket"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (2nd R), Republican of Louisiana, speaks alongside Republican Conference Chair Representative Lisa McClain (L), Republican of Michigan, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (2nd L), Republican of Minnesota, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R), Republican of Louisiana, during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Democracy Docket spent the week on some longer-term planning as we get set for the midterms. But it was another busy few days for voting and democracy news, and our reporters still found time to stay on top of it all.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump kicked off the week with one of his clearest statements yet that, with polls looking bad for the GOP, he wants to take control of this year\u2019s elections. In fact, he could hardly have been clearer. \u201cWe should take over the voting,\u201d Trump told a far-right interviewer. Read the report<\/strong><\/a> from Democracy Docket\u2019s Yunior Rivas.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to welcome Trump\u2019s comments. Johnson pretended not to understand how voting-counting works, falsely claiming that several 2024 election wins by Democrats appear \u201cfraudulent\u201d because the GOP candidate was ahead before the counting of legal ballots that arrived after Election Day. Read the report<\/strong><\/a> from Democracy Docket\u2019s Jim Saksa.<\/p>\n

And Steve Bannon jumped on Trump\u2019s words to warn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will \u201csurround the polls\u201d this fall. Read the report<\/a> <\/strong>from Democracy Docket\u2019s Matt Cohen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that House Republicans also chose this week to introduce by far the most restrictive voting legislation any major party has ever seriously proposed. The Save America Act, which is set for a vote this week, would require documentary proof of citizenship not only for those registering but for voters at the polls \u2014 disenfranchising anyone who doesn\u2019t bring their passport or original birth certificate when they vote. After an outcry, the measure was scaled back<\/a> to only<\/em> require voters to show a photo ID \u2014 college IDs aren\u2019t allowed, of course \u2014 but it still would almost certainly keep huge numbers of eligible would-be voters from casting a ballot. Read Jim\u2019s report<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a federal judge officially rejected the Trump administration\u2019s bid to gain access to Oregon\u2019s voter rolls. And his forceful ruling, asserting that the Department of Justice can no longer be trusted on the issue, could reverberate in the numerous similar lawsuits filed against other states.<\/p>\n

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai cited the letter to Minnesota sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which linked the ICE operation there to the state\u2019s refusal to hand over its own voter rolls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe context of this demand within a letter about immigration enforcement casts serious doubt as to the true purposes for which Plaintiff is seeking voter registration lists in this and other cases, and what it intends to do with that data,\u201d Kasubhai wrote. Read Yunior\u2019s report<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Separately, Fulton Co., Georgia pushed back against the shocking recent FBI raid of its elections hub, which was driven by false conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote. The county filed a motion seeking the return of the ballots and other election materials that the Feds confiscated. Read the report<\/strong><\/a> from Democracy Docket\u2019s Jacob Knutson.<\/p>\n

And finally, some huge news on the coast-to-coast Trump-driven redistricting contest we\u2019ve been covering closely. The Supreme Court dismissed a GOP challenge to California\u2019s new congressional map, which was drawn to counter Republican gerrymanders in Texas and elsewhere, and which could give Democrats five new seats.\u00a0The decision means that, for now at least, Dems have fought Trump\u2019s gerrymandering war to a rough draw. But there\u2019ll be many more key developments to come. Read the report<\/strong><\/a> from Democracy Docket\u2019s Jen Rice.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (2nd R), Republican of Louisiana, speaks alongside Republican Conference Chair Representative Lisa McClain (L), Republican of Michigan, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (2nd L), Republican of Minnesota, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R), Republican of Louisiana, during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}