New York Times: “Senior Justice Department officials are exploring whether they can bring criminal charges against state or local election officials if the Trump administration determines they have not sufficiently safeguarded their computer systems.”

“The department’s effort, which is still in its early stages, is not based on new evidence, data or legal authority … Instead, it is driven by the unsubstantiated argument made by many in the Trump administration that American elections are easy prey to voter fraud and foreign manipulation.”

Russell Berman: “In a study set to be released later today, the group behind the letter-writing effort, the nonpartisan Vote Forward, found that personal messages sent to more than 5 million occasional voters deemed at risk of staying home last fall had no effect on turnout.”

“What’s unusual is not Vote Forward’s lackluster findings, but that the group is ready to tell the world about them. Every election, a constellation of progressive organizations sells donors and volunteers on the promise that their data-driven turnout programs will deliver victory at the polls. These mobilization efforts have taken on ever-greater importance in an era of tight elections, where the presidency and majorities in Congress can hinge on just a few thousand votes.”

“Progressive groups are only too happy to brag about their wins; they’re much less likely to divulge details about their campaigns that flopped.”

Associated Press: “The Justice Department unit that ensures compliance with voting rights laws will switch its focus to investigating voter fraud and ensuring elections are not marred by ‘suspicion.'”

“In a ruling that could put an end to nearly six months of legal battles over North Carolina’s contested Supreme Court election, a federal judge on Monday ruled against the Republican candidate’s effort to overturn his narrow loss,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

“Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled that Jefferson Griffin, a judge on the state Court of Appeals, cannot ‘change the rules of the game after it had been played.’”

Rick Hasen: “I expect any appeal would be rejected…”

“The idea of retroactively changing the rules for which ballots should count—and applying those retroactive rules just selectively in places where the challenging candidate expects to gain relative votes—sure is unconstitutional in any election system that values the rule of law.“

NOTUS: “The Wednesday meeting is likely the FEC’s last for what could be weeks or months due to the departure of Republican Commissioner Allen Dickerson and the failure of President Donald Trump and the Senate to nominate and appoint new commissioners.”

“After Wednesday, the FEC won’t have its required quorum of four commissioners to conduct high-level business.”

“A federal judge has halted parts of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that sought to boost requirements that Americans show documents proving their citizenship when registering to vote,” CNN reports.

“Senior District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked a Trump directive in the order that the requirement be added to a federal voter registration form that is available for most Americans to use.”

“A three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Friday that more than 65,000 votes cast in the contested race for the state Supreme Court in 2024 must be recounted and verified — a win for the Republican candidate in the razor-thin, disputed contest and a decision that could potentially tip the election results in his favor,” NBC News reports.

“Wisconsin voters will decide Tuesday whether to add their 10-year old voter ID requirement to the state’s constitution. Soon after that, lawmakers will vote on whether to require a government ID that proves the holder’s citizenship before registering to vote,” Semafor reports.

“Both are Republican priorities, opposed by Democrats. But the two major parties’ coalitions are shifting — and the old assumption that Republicans appealed to the affluent voters most likely to have their paperwork in order, while Democrats mobilized less educated, poorer Americans who sometimes lack documents like drivers licenses and passports, is no longer clear.”

“An academic study last year suggested that ID requirements — especially in the sort of lower-turnout races where Democrats now thrive — don’t threaten the party as they used to, when it has sued on the grounds that the rules discriminated against Black voters.”

Washington Post: “The order on elections is more than 2,500 words and at times densely written. It may have received less attention than warranted as it was issued amid the controversy over how sensitive military operational details were shared in a Signal chat group that accidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic.”

“The order is illustrative of how the president is attempting to govern, largely through dictates rather than legislation. It is rooted in Trump’s long-standing, though false, claims that the election system is rife with fraud. Its legal foundations are questionable. But like other executive orders the president has signed, it could produce chaos and change before it is fully litigated.”

“President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that would require prospective voters to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. The order’s sweeping changes test the power of Trump’s presidential authority,” NPR reports.

“Voting rights advocates worry the new provisions could block millions of Americans from voting if enacted, and say Trump lacks the legal authority to make such changes.”

“President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that would seek to cut federal grants to states who don’t adopt tougher standards for voter registration, the latest Republican step in the political fight over access to the voter rolls,” Bloomberg reports.

“The executive order would add a question to the national voter registration form explicitly asking registrants to affirm they are U.S. citizens.”

“The effort would also reduce grants for states to update their election-related cybersecurity and voting equipment if the administration deems they have not done enough to secure their election rolls.”

“Georgia election officials plan to cancel about 455,000 inactive voter registrations this summer, one of the largest registration removals in U.S. history,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

“A Wisconsin election lawyer says billionaire Elon Musk’s plan to provide $100 in cash to people who sign an election petition may run afoul of state law,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Politico: “The law would have made more than 800,000 people eligible to vote in municipal contests such as mayoral races….”

“Republicans argued the state constitution prohibits all noncitizens from casting ballots. Democrats who defended the law said the constitution’s language should be viewed as a floor rather than a ceiling.”