Thursday, May 1

GOP gains majority on North Carolina election board

• North Carolina auditor Dave Boliek (R) appointed a GOP majority to the State Board of Elections after an appeals court allowed a law that took away appointment power from Gov. Josh Stein (D) to take effect. The new Republican members could put the board in the service of the party’s effort to overturn its loss in the state’s Supreme Court race.

Democratic senators slam ‘radical’ GOP push to ‘make it harder for eligible Americans’ to vote 

• A coalition of Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) took to the Senate floor to push back against the GOP-backed SAVE Act and President Donald Trump’s barrage of attacks on voting rights.
  
  
• “In the Oval Office, the radical Republicans are actively working hard to make it harder for eligible Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” Padilla said. “We see it in the endless lies and conspiracy theories about massive voter fraud. We see it in the new barriers being erected that would make it harder for eligible Americans to simply register to vote. And we see it in the Trump administration’s firing of the hardworking and dedicated security officials who are tasked with protecting our elections.”

Senator denounces Trump for replacing Democratic norms with loyalty tests

• In an interview with Democracy Docket, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) warned that the danger Trump presents to democracy is unfolding in real time, and said “the majority of Republicans in Congress are signed up to put Trump in power forever.” 

Trump administration dismantles protections against law enforcement abuses

• Since Trump took office, the DOJ froze all work on pending police misconduct investigations, including high-profile work in places like Minneapolis, where an officer murdered George Floyd, and Lexington, Kentucky, where a SWAT team killed Breonna Taylor.
  
  
• Trump has also dismantled the agency tasked with oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, Jessica Piskho writes. Considering the recent high-profile errors, abuses, and violence of ICE and Border Patrol agents, it seems highly convenient that Trump eliminated checks on their power.