Battleground state doesn’t just refer to the election Marc Elias of Democracy Docket previews his newsletter today (sorry, no link). He’s focused on efforts in the courts to preserve voting rights vs. those who challenge them. Two graphics are particularly handy. First the trend in voting lawsuits since 2020: The second graphic displays the number of active voting rights lawsuits by state. Texas and California may be outliers because they are each so big, population-wise as well as Latino population-wise. The other 7+ states are six swing states in hot contention this fall. Republicans would convince their base that it is “Democrats and progressive groups are actively using the courts to bring last minute litigation to change the rules of voting.” The data says otherwise, Elias contends. He writes: The state of our democracy has revealed itself. Democrats will go into the election supporting free and fair elections while Republicans will continue to attack them. I wish it were otherwise. Perhaps if they suffer big enough losses, in two years it will be. But for now, election denialism remains firmly in control of the once grand old party. My hand is up for the GOP suffering big losses. BTW, their insistence on following the rules they’ve set is, shall we say, squishy: Arizona GOP Only Cares About Proof of Citizenship for Democrats.