Matt Cohen, Senior Reporter

Bert Callais, the lead plaintiff in one of the most catastrophic Supreme Court cases ever, has a history of promoting false election conspiracies and anti-voting policies, Democracy Docket found. Callais also was at the Stop the Steal protest at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, before a deadly riot by pro-Trump insurrectionists. 

• In social media posts, Callais has called elections “rigged,” questioned the legitimacy of voting systems, and promoted efforts to replace electronic voting with dubious hand-counted paper ballots.
  
  
• “This is f#€king insane, non citizens voting in our country,” Callais wrote in one re-post of an Elon Musk post that promoted a widely debunked conspiracy theory about noncitizen voting.
  
  
• In a post from February, Callais dismissed concerns about access to voting, telling one user with a disability who pushed back on President Donald Trump’s call to get rid of mail-in ballots to “find someone to haul you to the polls.”
  
  

• Callais also is cozy with Seth Keshel, who the New York Times has called “a celebrity among election deniers.” After the court ruling, Keshel posted a photo of the two men shaking hands, calling Callais a “hero.”
  

Election deniers and anti-voting activists are cheering for the Callais ruling, which turbocharged the gerrymandering wars to new heights. If it’s bad for democracy, you can rest assured that these folks are stoked about it. 

• “Huge win for America!!” the anti-voting organization True the Vote posted. “Today’s SCOTUS decision is a major step toward restoring constitutional order and equal treatment under the law.”
  
  
• “Now THIS is a NUKE for a Weds,” Keshel posted right after the ruling came out. “All bets are off now for the House IF AND ONLY if these states don’t pull an INDIANA.”
  
  
• In the aftermath of the Callais ruling, conservative influencer Scott Presler is now pushing to sue all states with Section 2 districts, including Pennsylvania. “Did you know that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court drew the Commonwealth’s congressional maps?” he wrote. “These unconstitutional districts include 2 majority-minority districts — just like Louisiana… We’ve got a real legal challenge here.”

Earlier this month, Michigan Democrats met for their party’s spring endorsement convention to vote on candidates for November’s general election. But several Democratic candidates want an audit, after one said they found “material errors” in the convention’s vote-counting process. There’s no evidence whatsoever of fraud, but Michigan election deniers and the state Republican party are using the saga to push election disinformation and further sow denialism in the state’s election process. 

• Michigan state Sen. Sylvia Santana (D), who appealed her loss for a seat on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees at the Democratic convention, claimed that party leadership didn't enforce a rule that required people to be in person to vote. Two other elected officials, including Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), joined Santana’s call for an audit.
  
  
• “Democrats can't even secure their own internal elections,” the state GOP’s X account posted. “What a mess!”
  
  
• State Rep. Matt Maddock (R) — an election denier who, along with his wife, Meshawn Maddock, attended a Stop the Steal rally in D.C. the night before the Jan. 6, 2021 riot — posted on social media that “democrats cheat[ed] their convention.”
  
  
• Maddock also took a potshot at Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), who’s been the focus of Michigan election deniers’ conspiracy theories. “Benson should take a quick glance at [the convention] and name it the second most secure election in Michigan history,” Maddock said, referencing false claims that the 2020 election was rigged in Michigan, after Benson called it the “most secure” election in the state’s history.