The most litigated election ever CORPORATE MEDIA IS NOT REPORTING THIS!

 

It has become common to identify ways in which Donald Trump has distorted our democracy. His attacks on judges, his willful disregard for rule of law and his insistence on appointing unqualified sycophants to positions of high office are all a matter of consternation and commentary. His greatest damage has been to the electoral process itself. Prior to the 2020 election, he unleashed a torrent of lies about voting and election security. When he lost, he tried in vain to overturn the results of free and fair elections via the courts. When that failed, he instigated a violent insurrection to try to prevent the counting of the Electoral College results in Congress. Following his defeat, Trump was not just unrepentant but radicalized by his humiliating defeat. His handpicked lawyers — Guiliani, Powell, Ellis — had become punchlines and criminal defendants. Even election deniers became fringe conspiracists, akin to flat earth advocates, and Trump embraced them more tightly. He wanted his revenge, not only in the public arena, but also in the courtroom. As legacy media increasingly normalizes Trump and his movement, Democracy Docket will always stand by its mission to hold those in power accountable and expose the ongoing threats to our democracy. We are beholden only to our readers and members, so consider joining thousands in supporting our pro-democracy news outlet by becoming a premium member today. Meanwhile, Republicans saw political advantages to embracing Trump’s crackpot theories. It enabled them to enact massive voter suppression laws in 2021 and afterwards. These laws targeted key elements of the Democratic coalition, while also drawing in skeptical Republican voters. As we approached the 2024 election, the stage was set for an unprecedented wave of voting and election litigation to sweep across the country. Thanks to a recent report from Democracy Docket, we now know the size, depth and contours of that wave. From Jan. 1, 2023, through Election Day 2024, there were 306 voting and election lawsuits filed across 45 states. In 2024 alone, there were 228 lawsuits. To put this in perspective, in 2020 — when Republicans falsely claimed my team and I were indiscriminately filing lawsuits throughout the country — there were 82 total cases. In fact, in a change from the past, it was the GOP that showed the sharpest increase in its litigation docket. At several key junctures during the campaign, Trump made clear that voter suppression was his top priority for the party’s spending. He even replaced the Republican National Committee chair in part because he found her insufficiently committed to filing anti-voting litigation. As the new report notes: “After filing only six lawsuits in 2020, the RNC filed 24 lawsuits in 2024 and engaged in 18% of all lawsuits this cycle. The Trump campaign itself filed five lawsuits.” When you look at the broader GOP, the numbers are even more stark. More than half of all 158 anti-voting lawsuits filed this cycle were brought by some part of the Republican Party. By contrast, the Democratic Party accounted for only 17% of the pro-voting docket, with progressive nonprofits and groups accounting for nearly 70% of the total caseload. The DNC filed nine cases while the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris filed none. The good news is that despite the sharp increase in litigation, pro-voting forces continued to win, notching three times as many victories as losses with most of those victories coming in the presidential battleground states. So, what do we make of this? First, we should be pleased that, once again, the courts largely rejected GOP attacks on our election systems. As imperfect as they are, at a time when Republics control the presidency and both chambers of Congress, the courts will remain the most powerful tool to prevent Trump from undermining our democracy and rule of law. Second, we need to recognize that litigation is now a part of the process of our elections. We are not going back to the days where the courts were spectators in the electoral process. Both sides have learned that the rules of voting matter — to voters and, in some instances, to outcomes. It is difficult to look at the results of the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania and the ongoing litigation in the North Carolina state Supreme Court race and draw any other conclusion. Third, both political parties and nonprofits have a role to play in protecting voting rights. Republicans came into 2024 with a clear plan to use litigation to reinforce Donald Trump’s false claims and to change the rules to benefit his campaign. A constellation of right-wing groups followed suit. The Democratic Party took a different approach. The result was that pro-voting non-party groups and organizations were forced to bear an enormous load of cases to ensure a free and fair election. Finally, we need to realize that there is no off-season for protecting voting rights. The fight for fair voting rules takes place every month of every year, period. One final statistic. Right now — at the quietest point in any election cycle — there are 194 active voting and election cases pending in 40 states. They are evenly split between pro-voting and anti-voting lawsuits. More than 20 such cases are pending in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Arizona, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin each have more than 10. This is the new reality of democracy. Election denialism isn’t going away nor is voter suppression. Litigation is a feature, not an exception of modern elections. If we are to be successful at winning elections and preserving democracy, that is the lesson we must learn and carry forward into the new year. 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