The Lever
Welcome to the April edition of The Lever, featuring expert insights and analysis from Voting Rights Lab.
This month, we analyze a dangerous and escalating trend: the targeted influence of election deniers on state and local election boards in states like Georgia and North Carolina. We also examine efforts to avert a looming election crisis in Georgia. Finally, we break down the threat of federal interference in Michigan, where state officials are denouncing the Department of Justice’s sweeping demand for Detroit-area ballots from the 2024 election.
ELECTION BOARDS ARE THE NEW BATTLEGROUND IN ELECTION INTERFERENCE
A dangerous new trend has emerged since 2020: the partisan takeover of state and county election boards.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in Georgia, where the legislature installed election deniers on the state board and removed the secretary of state’s oversight authority. The new board immediately pushed a list of controversial rules that mirror President Donald Trump’s broader election agenda. The board also set in motion the FBI raid on Fulton County’s election offices, during which agents seized nearly 700 boxes of election materials from the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina State Election Board – also a product of partisan legislation designed to manipulate the makeup of the board – just set a dangerous precedent by voluntarily handing over the state’s entire voter list to the federal government. Their complicity in bending to the will of the Trump administration raises serious concerns about the security of confidential voter data and demonstrates the political pressure boards are now facing.
Learn more about recent threats from partisan election boards — and how we can fight back.
BY THE NUMBERS
9 Weeks
That's the razor-thin window remaining before Georgia's July 1 deadline to overhaul how election officials count ballots.
Under a 2024 law, QR codes can no longer be used for ballot counting. But lawmakers did not allocate funding to make this change, and a proposal to extend the deadline for removing QR codes died on the final day of the legislative session.
Experts, advocates, and election workers warn that a sudden shift to a new system — such as hand-marked paper ballots — could create administrative chaos and trigger a wave of poll worker resignations. To ensure a smooth voting experience, advocates across the political spectrum signed a letter earlier this month calling on Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a special session to address the issue.
Read the full story in the Georgia Recorder.
WHAT WE’RE READING: MICHIGAN OFFICIALS DENOUNCE DOJ DEMAND FOR WAYNE COUNTY BALLOTS
“This request is as absurd as it is baseless.” — Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“Their goal is to sow seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of the results this November and in 2028.” — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Michigan’s top state leaders are speaking out after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a sweeping demand for every ballot, receipt, and envelope from the 2024 election in Wayne County, which contains Detroit.
The DOJ’s letter targeted Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett, threatening a court order if the county does not comply. This is not an isolated incident — the DOJ has run similar pressure campaigns in Arizona, Georgia, and Missouri.
Here’s the catch: The DOJ's justification — three alleged fraud cases from 2020 — were already prosecuted by the Attorney General's office. What's more, not a single one involved the 2024 election cycle.
Read the developing story in Michigan Live.
FROM OUR PARTNERS: STATES UNITED DEMOCRACY CENTER
In an independent new report from States United Democracy Center, a trio of election experts — Ryan Germany (former general counsel for the Georgia secretary of state), Justin Grimmer (Stanford University), and Stephen Richer (former Maricopa County recorder) — systematically discredit allegations of election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia.
The experts find extensive flaws in a report published by the "Election Oversight Group” (EOG) alleging errors and fraud during the 2020 general election. It relies on incomplete data, misreads Georgia law, and fundamentally disregards existing election safeguards, such as the triple-count verification process that originally confirmed the 2020 results.
Ultimately, the experts conclude that the EOG report offers "no coherent theory of evidence of fraud and no basis to doubt the results of the election."
THE MARKUP
The Markup is our weekly election law and policy update, powered by our Election Policy Tracker. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s edition:
Connecticut House passes bill expanding access to mail voting and protecting against federal election interference. The bill would eliminate the excuse requirement for mail voting, allow voters to request a mail ballot application before each election, and establish a cure process for ballots with errors. Connecticut is one of only 14 states where not all voters can vote by mail. The bill would also authorize the attorney general to seek relief at the state Supreme Court if there is a threat of federal interference, and require local election officials and election workers to provide any subpoenas they receive to the attorney general and secretary of the state within 36 hours. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
North Carolina elections board considers new voter ID rules that could result in more rejected ballots. North Carolina law allows voters to request an exemption from the state’s photo ID requirements if they have a qualifying excuse. Rejecting those requests currently requires a unanimous vote from a county board of elections. Under the new proposed rules, a simple majority of the board could reject those requests. North Carolina’s county boards of elections have been the subject of a partisan takeover in recent years.