It’s rare these days that the U.S. Supreme Court hands down a win for voting rights, which it did Monday when it ruled 5-4 that states can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. President Donald Trump and MAGA took it as well as you’d expect — and used the ruling to continue their push for voter suppression legislation. Also in this week’s Eye On The Right: Liberty Vote drops its billion-dollar lawsuit against election denier Mike Lindell, and as always, our weekly dispatches from the Twilight Zone.
Supreme Court mail ballot ruling spurs Trump and MAGA meltdown: ‘This is how our country dies’
The Supreme Court delivered a huge win for voting rights Monday, upholding state laws that allow grace periods for ballots mailed by Election Day. Which means Trump and his MAGA base threw nuclear-level temper tantrums.
These included dire warnings about the end of democracy as we know it (which, LOL), stoking more fears about voter fraud, and lamenting that the court had allowed “endless mail-in ballots.”
“Democrats are inviting chaos at the ballot box by allowing elections to drag on for days and weeks after voters cast their ballots,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said. “Republicans are not going to be deterred by this decision, and the RNC will keep fighting to have elections end on Election Day as Americans want.”
“The Supreme Court just handed the Left a weapon they will use in every close race between now and November,” the conservative anti-voting lawyer Cleta Mitchell wrote in an email to supporters.
Mitchell wasn’t all doom and gloom over the ruling. Speaking with former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon, Mitchell said the ruling might give the GOP a legal avenue to kill early voting — and she doesn’t want to wait to sue.
“As I am reading through this majority opinion, I’m thinking… if they say that the act of voting is supposed to take place on Election Day, and that’s separate from receiving the ballot, I think that’s crazy, but that means early voting is out the door,” Mitchell said on Bannon’s podcast Monday. “So let’s get on it. Let’s file some cases.”
Mitchell’s case to kill early voting might be a legal longshot — at least given the majority’s opinion in Watson, in which Barrett specifically defended early voting.
Justice Samuel Alito, who penned the dissent, endorsed the Court’s majority opinion that election-day statutes allow for early voting.
But if nothing else, it’s a stark reminder of the right’s remarkable zeal to abolish almost any form of voting that expands access.
Trump and far-right figures also used the decision to bolster an ongoing push for the SAVE America Act.
“In light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court today concerning Voter’s Rights, and the fact that ‘people’s’ votes are allowed to be counted LONG AFTER an Election is over, it is more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump wrote on social media.
“Yet ANOTHER reason the SAVE America Act must be passed NOW!” right-wing commentator Nick Sortor wrote. “This means states like California can CONTINUE taking WEEKS to count ballots after Election Day. BEYOND insane.”
Many on the right took swipes at Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who authored the majority opinion.
“Amy Coney Barrett is the worst choice ever among all GOP justices. And that includes Roberts,” anti-voting activist Seth Keshel wrote. “What a disappointment she is.”
While others took a more apocalyptic view of the ruling.
“So, basically, we just learned that if a state passes a law to accept mail-in ballots weeks after Election Day, SCOTUS will uphold the law,” anti-voting activist Scott Presler said. “This is how our country dies.”
MAGA thinks 2020 election conspiracies vindicated after voting machine company drops defamation lawsuit against election denier
Liberty Vote — the voting machine company formerly known as Dominion Voting Systems — dropped its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit last week against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who is running for Minnesota governor.
It’s a significant move that some MAGA figures seem to think both vindicates Lindell’s bogus claims against the company — and suggests there may be some sort of federal investigation coming.
To recap: Dominion sued Lindell in 2021 for spreading false claims that it played a key role in stealing the 2020 election from Trump. Last year, a former Republican operative bought Dominion and rebranded it as Liberty Vote. A Liberty Vote spokesperson reportedly said that the parties agreed to a confidential settlement, which includes both sides paying their own attorneys' fees and expenses.
After the lawsuit was dropped, Lindell’s media outlet published a dossier on the 2020 election that purports to provide evidence of voter fraud. "People have been told for years there is 'no evidence,'” Lindell said. “This report does not ask you to trust us. It asks you to read the evidence, check the citations, and decide for yourself."
After Trump reposted an article on TruthSocial about Liberty dropping the lawsuit, Lindell appeared on Bannon’s podcast to hype the president’s interest. “The big reason he [shared] it with everybody is… because we dropped an 800-page historical library of evidence backed by facts.”
Lindell and other popular MAGA voices hinted that Liberty dropping the lawsuit indicates that some sort of federal investigation into voting machines in the 2020 election may be in the pipeline.
“Pulte is coming,” wrote MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec, suggesting Bill Pulte, the newly appointed MAGA loyalist as the acting Director of National Intelligence, might be probing voting machines. He wouldn’t be the first Trump administration official to try and go after voting machines.
House Speaker Mike Johnson warnedguests at a Republican event about what will happen if Democrats win the midterms: “Half of you in this room will be targeted. I run the protection program. I'll take care of you."
Convicted election denier Tina Peters, was recently granted clemency by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who said Peters had shown “remorse” for her role in a voting machine breach. “I do show remorse,” Peters said on a far-right podcast this week. “The remorse is that people that should be in prison are not. That's my remorse.” So much for showing remorse.
Speaking of Peters: She visited the White House this week to meet with Trump. “Tina Peters just came to the White House to thank me for getting her released from prison in Colorado,” Trump said on social media. “She was put there because she found Election Fraud, but instead of arresting the people that committed the Fraud, they arrested her!”
Scott Presler has made going after Senate Majority Leader John Thune for not being able to pass the SAVE America Act his full-time job. Now Presler is claiming Thune’s people banned him from attending a South Dakota GOP dinner.
Seth Keshel responded to failed Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s suggestion that we move to vote-by-phone. “Terrible idea,” Keshel replied. “You want maximum turnout? I don’t think so. Imagine the maximum turnout of Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia two years ago.” Translation: MAGA wants as little voting as possible, to ensure they don’t lose elections.
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