This weekly update summarizing legislative activity affecting voting and elections is powered by the Voting Rights Lab. Sign up for VRL’s weekly newsletter here.
The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,183 bills so far this session, with 578 bills that tighten the rules governing voter access or election administration and 1,040 bills that expand the rules.
Arizona enacted a bill that will remove individuals from the voter registration list based on poor information – sometimes without any notification – and another ensuring voters across the state can track the status of their mail ballots online.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania legislature approved a ballot initiative that would require voters to provide ID when casting a ballot, even by mail, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court found that state law does not allow municipalities to provide drop boxes.
Looking ahead: We will be watching how the first director of the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security focuses the attention of the newly created office.
Here are the details:
The governor of Arizona signed two bills, one restricting ballot access and one improving it. On Wednesday, Gov. Doug Ducey signed H.B. 2243, requiring election officials to conduct investigations of registered voters using data sources that are not designed to determine voter eligibility and contain incomplete information. Some voters who would have their registrations canceled pursuant to these new requirements would not receive notice prior to cancellation or have an opportunity to contest the cancellation. This new law is nearly identical to H.B. 2617, a bill the governor vetoed earlier this year.
Ducey also signed S.B. 1411, which requires statewide ballot tracking, ensuring all voters across the state are able to track the status of their mail ballot online by the end of 2023. The bill also appropriates $250,000 for the implementation of the policy.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly offers initial approval to a ballot question on voter ID. The legislature approved a ballot initiative that would require voters to show government-issued identification when they vote, whether in person or by mail. If the bill passes again in the 2023-24 session, the proposal will appear on the ballot for final approval by the voters.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court found that drop boxes are not permissible under state law. For years, some Wisconsin municipalities provided drop boxes for voters. The practice became widespread in 2020, as Covid-19 drove many more voters to choose to vote by mail. In a decision issued July 8, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the Wisconsin Election Commission’s drop box guidance and held that ballots must be returned by mail or by the voter to the clerk at either the clerk’s office or a designated alternative site.
New director named to Florida elections investigation unit. Gov. Ron DeSantis named Peter Antonacci as the new head of the newly created Office of Election Crimes and Security, which was created by S.B. 524 earlier this year. Under the supervision of new Secretary of State Cord Byrd, Antonacci will oversee an office that includes 15 investigators with instructions to follow up on reports of election irregularities. Currently, it is unclear whether this office will primarily focus on voters, election officials, parties or candidates.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
____
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.