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The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,446 bills so far this session, with 573 bills that tighten the rules governing voter access or election administration and 1,088 bills that expand the rules.
Georgie and Arizona made changes on both fronts in recent days. Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation granting the Bureau of Investigation authority to investigate election crimes while the sate also restored automatic voter registration for drivers. Meanwhile in Arizona, it was a busy week for the Senate Rules Committee, with advance one bill that would mandate drop box monitoring as well as a voting rights restoration bill.
Looking ahead: New Hampshire’s bill placing new restrictions on voter ID is slated for a House floor vote this week.
Here are the details:
Florida secretary of state issues guidance on new voting restrictions. Shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed S.B. 524 into law last week, Secretary of State Laurel Lee issued guidance concerning some provisions of the new law that may be subject to preclearance, pursuant to a federal court decision regarding another Florida bill, and therefore will not be enforced until further notice. The provisions on hold pending the state’s appeal of the district court ruling include the new restrictions on the use of drop boxes for mail-in ballots, increased penalties for third-party voter registration organizations and line warming.
Arizona’s rights restoration bill eligible for governor’s signature; Legislation restricting drop boxes advances. H.B. 2119 would allow people ineligible for automatic restoration to apply for their voting rights to be restored immediately upon discharge, instead of having to wait two years as they do under current law. The bill would also ensure that citizens convicted of or facing felony charges are notified about whether, when or how their voting rights will be restored. The bill has passed the Senate and passed a House vote on concurrence with the Senate amendments. It is now eligible for the governor’s signature.
Meanwhile, legislation restricting drop boxes ( H.B. 2238) passed out of the Senate Rules Committee. This bill would require drop boxes to be located in a facility at which election staff are present and monitoring the drop box. Otherwise, 24-hour video surveillance of the drop box would be required. Opponents have argued that these restrictions would be cost-prohibitive and threaten to eliminate drop boxes in many areas, especially on tribal lands.
Georgia governor signs criminal investigation law; officials restore automatic voter registration. Kemp signed S.B. 441 into law last week, expanding the authority of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to independently investigate purported election crimes and issue relevant subpoenas. Georgia is one of 14 states to introduce bills that would escalate the investigation or prosecution of purported election crimes this year.
Last year voter registrations dramatically declined at the Georgia Department of Driver Services. The likely cause of the decline was a technical change making voter registration a confusing opt-in process, rather than offering eligible voters the opportunity to opt out of registration. This past week, following significant media coverage, Georgia officials announced they would restore the opt-out process to automatically register eligible voters.
New Hampshire’s strict voter ID bill passes the House Finance Committee. S.B. 418 passed the House Finance Committee despite a subcommittee’s recommendation to refer the bill to an interim study. This bill would make the state voter ID law more restrictive. Current New Hampshire law allows voters without ID to cast a regular ballot if they complete an affidavit affirming their identity, under penalty of perjury. This bill would eliminate that alternative, and instead rescind their vote from the count if they are unable to provide an ID. Most states with voter ID laws offer an alternative method of voting to ensure the identity of voters without ID can still be verified. This new bill would put New Hampshire in the minority of states. It is expected to face a House floor vote this week.
Oklahoma Legislature revives a bill that would allow interference in election litigation. The Oklahoma House adopted the most recent version of S.B 523 and sent it back to the Senate for concurrence. This bill would prevent litigants from changing election law by settlement or legal agreement and only permit state actors – including state courts – to alter election law to the extent authorized by statute.
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.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.