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The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,185 bills so far this session, with 579 bills that tighten the rules governing voter access or election administration and 1,041 bills that expand the rules.
Both New Hampshire and Pennsylvania created new avenues to criminalize the actions of election officials last week, and newly filed Wisconsin litigation seeks to force election officials to reject mail ballots cast by eligible voters due to minor omissions by a voter’s witness.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina a federal court decision gave voters with disabilities more flexibility in finding assistance, and the governor signed a budget bill that will fund the state’s membership in ERIC, a database that helps states maintain accurate voter lists. Also, California lawmakers sent a bill to the governor that would provide better transparency around signature verification.
Here are the details:
A federal judge blocked a North Carolina law that restricted assistance for voters with disabilities, and the governor signed a budget bill that includes funding for North Carolina to join ERIC for one year. A federal judge found that a state law violated the Voting Rights Act because it prohibited people living in facilities such as nursing homes, hospitals and clinics from relying on employees of those facilities for help in applying for, completing and returning mail ballots. The law only allowed voters to receive assistance from a close relative or legal guardian; following the court’s permanent injunction, North Carolina voters with disabilities will be able to receive assistance from anyone they choose.
Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper signed H.B. 103, which provides funding for North Carolina to join the Electronic Registration Information Center, which houses a database used by 31 other states and Washington, D.C., to maintain accurate voter lists. While the budget bill provides funding for North Carolina to join ERIC, it only funds the state’s membership for one year rather than annually. The bill also requires that the State Board of Elections seek the legislature’s approval prior to making any changes to election policies or procedures if required for ERIC membership, which may limit the board’s ability to use the database.
New Hampshire enacts laws criminalizing election officials for good-faith conduct. Gov. Chris Sununu signed H.B. 1567, legislation that removes the attorney general’s discretion when it comes to election law – and instead requires the office to investigate all alleged misconduct by election officials. When applied in conjunction with another bill enacted during the 2022 legislative session ( S.B. 418) this could result in the prosecution of election officials for good-faith execution of their responsibilities. S.B. 418 further creates a potentially unworkable administrative timeline that may cause election officials to miss deadlines for mailing out ballots to active military voters in 2024.
Pennsylvania creates new criminal penalties for election officials and prohibits private funding of elections – but also provides new public funding. Last Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law that prohibits private funding of elections and enforces the prohibition with new criminal penalties for election officials who violate it. Notably, however, the new law allows the private donation of voting locations and volunteer services to continue. It also creates a grant program to provide public funding if counties commit to following certain election procedures, such as early processing of mail ballots.
New Wisconsin litigation seeks to reject mail ballots cast by eligible voters due to minor omissions by a voter’s witness. A new lawsuit seeks to force election officials to reject the ballots of eligible Wisconsin voters over minor omissions, such as a missing ZIP code for their witness. Wisconsin is one of a small number of states that requires voters to fill out their mail ballots in front of a witness. After the voter puts the ballot in the certificate envelope and signs and seals it, the witness must also sign and put their address on the certificate envelope. In accordance with guidance issued by the Wisconsin Election Commission in 2016, election officials may fill in missing witness address information in certain circumstances. If this litigation is successful, they will be prohibited from doing so in future elections, and will instead be required to reject mail ballots that are missing any witness address information. This new litigation comes on the heels of a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision issued last week that overruled previous WEC guidance and prohibited drop boxes.
California sends a bill to the governor that provides greater transparency to the signature verification process. The California Legislature sent A.B. 1619 to the governor’s desk, a bill that would ensure voters are informed when they register to vote that the signature they provide during the registration process will be used to validate the signature on their mail ballot.
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.