“Utah Supreme Court rejects emergency stay in redistricting case, Utah legislature must draw new maps” – Election Law Blog
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Election Law
After the first major salvo was fired by Texas, the gerrymandering wars have begun. California is mired in lawsuits in its efforts while Missouri has charged ahead by passing a new U.S. House district map that effectively eliminates one Democrat seat. This passed the House of representatives by a vote of 90 to 65. It was only that close because a few Republicans also voted against it.
Missouri State House Approves New District Map – RedState– redstate.com
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Honestly, it’s about time Republicans started playing hardball.
On Tuesday, Missouri’s state House of Representatives passed a new congressional district map, eliminating one safe Democratic seat by dividing Kansas City among three heavily Republican districts.
The Missouri House of Representatives on Tuesday approved plans to redraw state congressional districts as part of President Trump’s push to boost the Republican majority in Congress.
The new state congressional map was approved in a 90 to 65 vote, with a handful of GOP lawmakers voting against it.
Ohio congressional redistricting process begins on heels of Texas battle – Ohio Capital Journal
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California GOP governor candidate Steve Hilton files federal lawsuit over congressional redistricting – KCRA
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Utah gerrymander struck down by judge in a win for voters– www.latimes.com
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It’s been more than 60 years since Utah backed a Democrat for president. The state’s last Democratic U.S. senator left office nearly half a century ago and the last Utah Democrat to serve in the House lost his seat in 2020.
But, improbably enough, Utah has suddenly emerged as a rare Democratic bright spot in the red-vs.-blue redistricting wars.
Late last month, a judge tossed out the state’s slanted congressional lines and ordered Utah’s GOP-run Legislature to draw a new political map, ruling that lawmakers improperly thumbed their noses and overrode voters who created an independent redistricting commission to end gerrymandering.
It’s a welcome pushback against the growing pattern of lawmakers arrogantly ignoring voters and pursuing their preferred agenda. You don’t have to be a partisan to think that elections should matter and when voters express their will it should be honored.
The left has decided to use a sophistic tactic of equivocation in their defense of mass mailer elections. They have decided to simply refer to ALL mail-in ballots as “ABSENTEE ballots,” and accuse Trump and the GOP of seeking to ban absentee ballots. Absentee ballots are intended ONLY for people who will actually be absent, not anyone who doesn’t feel like going to vote on election day.
They will also be denying any evidence of mail-in-ballot corruption despite a recent video capturing a Democrat stuffing a ballot drop box with ballots before an August 5 primary election. The timing couldn’t have been worst as just before Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told CNN “Mail ballots are secure.”
Democracy Watch: Democrats should stand by as Trump pursues misguided plan to ban absentee votes – Asheville Watchdog
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For mistake-prone Democrats this is a time to take Napoleon’s advice and avoid interrupting Republicans as they self-destruct by carrying out President Trump’s recent directive to abolish absentee and machine voting before the 2026 elections. Trump’s solution: Return the nation to pencil-and-paper balloting, like we used in high school.
I’ll leave aside for the moment the fact that a presidential order to do this would collide with the U.S. Constitution, which essentially instructs the president to bug out of counting, and the impossibility of counting those millions and millions of paper ballots within our lifetimes.
The result, according to mountains of evidence, would be disastrous for Republican candidates in North Carolina at every level. But it would be especially damaging to the candidate at the top of Republican ballots in 2026, Michael Whatley, the likely nominee for the U.S. Senate.
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday voided a Pennsylvania law requiring proper dating of mail-in ballots. The law required the rejection of mail-in ballots improperly dated by voters. The Pennsylvania Attorney General, now a Republican, defended the law on appeal after his predecessor, a Democrat, had declined to defend it in a lower court.
Numerous types of dating errors could result in ballot rejection, the appeals court noted:
Pursuant to this “date requirement,” if a return envelope’s date field contains a mistaken additional digit, a stray pen mark, or missing information (including a year) then the ballot contained within that envelope may not be counted. (citations omitted)
The law led to 10,000 discarded ballots in the 2022 General Election. Only 4,500 ballots were discarded in the 2024 General Election after Pennsylvania redesigned the return envelope to reduce the number of discarded ballots.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that while the dating requirement only minimally burdened voters, the consequences of an improperly dated ballot outweighed any purported benefit of the requirement.
The challenge came after the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania interpreted a part of the state election code requiring voters to “fill out, date and sign” their mail-in ballot. The state supreme court held that the dating requirement mandates discarding ballots that are improperly dated.
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President Donald Trump has been warning for years that mail-in ballots and voting machines are riddled with vulnerabilities that invite fraud and undermine trust in elections. We’ve discussed these vulnerabilities here at PJ Media extensively, and now Trump is taking action on them. On Monday morning, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he will issue an executive order to put an end to mail-in ballots before the 2026 midterms and restore “honesty and integrity” to America’s elections.
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President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would work to “get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.” Democrats and their media allies reflexively attacked the president, insisting that mail-in voting is secure — as if repeating it often enough makes it true.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said on CNN that “Mail ballots are secure.” ABC News’ Hannah Demissie dismissed Trump’s claims as “without … evidence” before later conceding fraud does occur, but that it’s “rare” (as if any amount of voter fraud should be tolerated). ABC7 Eyewitness News said Trump “falsely” claimed mail-in ballots “lead to voter fraud.”
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said Trump’s comments are “completely false” and claimed there is “zero evidence” to support his voter fraud claims in U.S. elections.
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In the days before the August 5 primary election in the troubled city of Hamtramck, Michigan, surveillance videos caught several people allegedly stuffing the municipal ballot drop box with suspicious ballots.
An August 1 video shows two men in a car handling stacks of ballots and placing them into Hamtramck’s drop box during the day. In another video, a pickup truck arrives at the drop box after dark with three people inside. The driver gets out of the truck and crams stacks of ballots into the box but has trouble because the box is so full.
Stuffing drop boxes while no one watching for cheaters is a recipe for election corruption. That is why President Donald Trump announced this week he will lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, which can be cast by using a drop box. Trump also wants to stop using voting machines and return to voting with paper ballots.
Democrat States are trying to change their congressional district maps to give the DNC more U.S. House seats in 2026 following a move by the Texas republicans that gives the GOP 5 more seats in 2026. Now, every state that can is scrambling to serve its party and find new House seats through “innovative” mapping. The nature and tone of the gerrymandering wars have some calling for the removal of political parties from the process of district mapping altogether.
Democrats Threaten A Nationwide Redistricting War, But They May Not Like The Result– legalinsurrection.com
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Democrats are scrambling to respond to Texas’s bold mid-decade redistricting push, but the reality is clear: they are poised to lose badly.
A partisan move by Texas to redraw its congressional maps in the middle of the decade to secure five more GOP seats in the U.S. House set off a clamor to replicate the effort in red and blue states.
Texas Republicans, backed by President Trump, kicked off the effort to lock in control of the House. Democrats staged their usual walkout stunt, but Gov. Greg Abbott made clear Republicans would not back down.
Past efforts by Democrats to abscond and deny Republicans a quorum similarly only delayed the passage of bills, but didn’t quash them. And Gov. Gregg Abbott vowed to keep calling the Legislature back until enough lawmakers are present to pass the redistricting proposal.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to flex in retaliation, announcing his state would redraw maps to add Democrats. But unlike Texas, California faces a maze of restrictions, including its so-called independent commission and voter approval requirements. That means Newsom’s threat is more bark than bite.
Meanwhile, red states are moving fast. Missouri is on top of that movement.
A document obtained by The Associated Press shows the state Senate has received a $46,000 invoice for software licenses and staff training for redistricting.
While Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe hasn’t officially announced a special session, Republican House Majority Leader Alex Riley told the AP it is “pretty likely” to happen. Riley added that he has had discussions with White House staff about it.
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Utah 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson told Utah to redraw its congressional district map before the 2026 midterms.
The new map must “align with what voters approved in 2018.”
Utah has 30 days to submit four new maps that match Proposition 4.
Gibson will hold a conference with parties on Friday to discuss the next steps. A hearing on the proposed maps is scheduled for October.
Republicans could appeal Gibson’s decision, which would likely keep the current map until 2028.
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The redistricting war is officially on.
After weeks of bluster from dueling governors and state lawmakers, California and Texas raced forward with parallel action this week to draw new congressional maps, setting into motion a national redistricting fight that could upend the midterms and determine control of the House.
Texas Republicans on Saturday passed a new map that will help the GOP flip as many as five House seats — a partisan play at the hand of President Donald Trump. On Thursday, California Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom preemptively agreed to send a retaliatory ballot measure to voters — the first step in potentially offsetting Texas’ maneuver by creating new Democratic-leaning seats.
GOP Rep. Under Fire After Doubling Down On MAGA Betrayal: ‘We Need Action’– trendingpoliticsnews.com
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U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) is doubling down on his calls to axe Republican-led redistricting efforts after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to draw out five Republican-controlled districts in his state, which is already among the most gerrymandered in the nation. Rep. Kiley’s seat is in danger of being drawn out if Newsom’s plan succeeds.
Earlier this month, the California lawmaker introduced a bill that, if passed, would prevent states from redrawing their respective congressional maps before the 2030 census. The bill was introduced as Texas Republicans moved forward with a plan that would create five additional districts that Trump won by 10 or more points last year.
A number of additional Republican-controlled states, including Missouri, Ohio, in addition to potential plans from Indiana and Florida, are considering redistricting themselves. Republicans have argued that the move is necessary due to extreme gerrymanders in Democrat-controlled states like California, Illinois and Maryland.
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The California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by state Republican legislators seeking to halt Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redistrict California’s congressional map.
“Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8,” reads a brief order posted to the docket.
Newsom has hit back at Republican redistricting efforts in Texas by pushing for a special election this November to get voters’ approval on a more favorable House map for Democrats in California in time for the 2026 midterms.
The ruling paves the way for the California legislature to proceed with voting as soon as Thursday on a package that would set up the special election.
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As if Republicans didn’t have enough problems trying to hold on to the House majority, along comes Utah to give them a whole new problem.
Republicans once again tried to ignore the will of the people and the state’s constitution, and the matter went to court.
The Campaign Legal Center explained what happened:
The court determined that the Utah state legislature violated the people’s right to alter or reform their government when they repealed Proposition 4, or Prop 4 – a ballot initiative that aimed to prohibit partisan gerrymandering by establishing the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission and creating fair, neutral criteria and procedures for adopting district maps.
Prop 4, which was passed by Utah voters and unconstitutionally repealed by the legislature, is now the law again. The current gerrymandered congressional map passed by the legislature may not be used in future elections. The Utah state legislature now has a chance to pass a new, fair map that complies with Prop 4, and if it does not, the court will order a new map, which will be used for the 2026 election.
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Democrats released a congressional map for California Friday that could give them five more districts more favorable to Democrats.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has been pushing to redistrict California as President Donald Trump demanded Texas Republicans redraw the state’s map mid-decade in an effort to create a cushion to retain the GOP’s razor-thin House majority.
California, as the most populous state, has the largest congressional delegation. Democrats currently hold 43 of the state’s 52 House seats, and the new map could give Democrats a 48-4 advantage.
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The far-left failure Governor Newsom is forcing a special election in an already very gerrymandered state into a utterly one party state. Newsom is a threat to democracy. Newsom claims gerrymandering is evil so he is going to super-gerrymander California’s existing gerrymandered congressional districts. Think about that.
Newsom wants to increase Democrat representation by five more, which would give Democrats 92% representation, while 40% of California votes Republican.
BREAKING 🚨 Voters in California overwhelmingly oppose Gov Gavin Newsom’s plan to gerrymander the State 64%-36%
Gavin Newsom is a L0SER pic.twitter.com/JvCjsrAyFH
— MAGA Voice (@MAGAVoice) August 17, 2025
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Former President Barack Obama is supporting California’s mid-cycle redistricting effort as a “responsible approach” to Republicans drawing new maps in Texas.
Obama praised California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ballot measure proposal to redraw congressional districts and tilt at least five congressional districts in the state towards Democrats at a fundraiser on Tuesday for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
“I believe that Governor Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach,” he said, according to excerpts obtained by POLITICO. “I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.”
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Former NBC/MSNBC political director Chuck Todd sounded a lot like CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday’s edition of The Arena on CNN. In a poor attempt to deflect attention away from Democratic Party gerrymandering in states like California and Illinois, by falsely suggesting that Republican-controlled Florida was the “worst” state when it came to redistricting practices. He also argued that the way to solve a lot of those issues was to actively gerrymander.
What caused Todd to snap at his home state of Florida was CNN Republican commentator Scott Jennings calling out far-left states like California and Illinois for their wildly gerrymandered districts. “I mean, when I look at the states like Illinois and New York and even California with the supposed independent commission where Republicans get 40 percent of the vote and only have 17 percent of the seats,” he proclaimed.
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California Democrats never miss a chance to lecture the rest of the country about “protecting democracy.” But when it comes to their own backyard, they can’t even answer the most basic question:
Who drew the newly proposed California congressional maps?
That’s exactly what Sacramento reporter Ashley Zavala asked Assembly Elections Chair Gail Pellerin and Senate Elections Chair Sabrina Cervantes yesterday. What followed wasn’t transparency. It was a master class in political dodge, deflection, and double-speak.