As we jump into 2025, we wanted to share some of the articles, reports, and resources that are informing our thinking for the year ahead.
For more about the top-of-mind themes as we head into 2025, check out this post, which touches on the current state of election denialism, attempts to change state and federal election law, and the public discourse around elections:
Restricting the Vote: Inside the Right-Wing Push to Rewrite Election Rules in 2025
Documented
Pro-democracy group Documented obtained audio from an American Legislative Exchange Council meeting following the election, where leading election denier Cleta Mitchell laid out the movement’s goals for the coming year. The goals included changing state laws to make voting more difficult, giving election officials more power to disrupt certification, and fearmongering about noncitizen voting. This piece makes clear the election denial movement remains active and coordinated and lays out its roadmap for the year ahead.
How Corpus Christi, Texas, scrambled to resolve a tie in a city council race
VoteBeat
This story explores the complexity (and sometimes complete weirdness) of election rules — and why explainers to understand those rules are so important.
Threats to Democracy Tracker
American Oversight
This resource from our partners at American Oversight (including some of Informing Democracy’s research!) tracks the actions of election deniers, election subverters, and partisan actors who promoted the 2020 “Big Lie” or continue to work to undermine U.S. democracy. This resource is invaluable for helping our pro-democracy movement do the important work of tracking key figures to gain a comprehensive view of the anti-democracy movement.
Dallas County scrambles to secure voter check-in software before May 3 election
Dallas News
Election administrators in Dallas County are scrambling ahead of the May 3 municipal elections to ensure they have functioning check-in software. Dallas County’s Election Systems & Software malfunctioned in 2024 affecting around 4,000 voters’ ballots, resulting in the decertification of those machines by the Secretary of State — something Dallas County would like to avoid this coming election.
If you can’t view this article, check out similar coverage from WFAA.
Maricopa County’s new leaders pledge another election audit — but not like the last one
VoteBeat
The 2024 elections resulted in new officials overseeing Maricopa County’s elections, including a former congresswoman who voted against certifying the 2020 election results, as well as an incoming recorder who called the county’s elections a “laughingstock.” Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reports on their plan for yet another review of the county’s election systems, and how they claim it differs from the chaotic Cyber Ninjas’ “audit” of 2020.
Voting Legislation Bill Tracker
Voting Rights Lab
This resource from our partners at Voting Rights Lab dives deep into tracking state voting laws and provides a detailed analysis of all pending voting legislation across the country. This resource tracks across a span of voting access and election administration, making it an incredible resource as we continue to see attacks on voting in state legislatures across the country – including proposals to drastically alter election administration in states Informing Democracy has already researched.
How to steal an election in America: A zombie lawsuit aims to overturn NC Supreme Court race
Protect Democracy
Our partners at Protect Democracy provide a detailed explainer on the State Supreme Court overreach going on in North Carolina right now for a seat on that very court. This piece also goes into detail on the concept of a “zombie lawsuit,” a lawsuit filed before Election Day with no chance of being successful before votes are cast, but where “the goal is to plant a dead complaint somewhere in the legal system in the hopes that a court (or Congress) will use the claims as a pretext to overrule the voters afterward.”
Training for Election Officials: A 50-State Analysis
Bipartisan Policy Center
The Bipartisan Policy Center has just released a comprehensive report on state-level training for election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report offers five recommendations and six considerations to improve training based on best practices in election administration. As election officials’ roles and responsibilities become more complex — and as high turnover among officials continues — the importance of training will only increase.
Bright Line Watch Stands Sentry on Democracy
Dartmouth
The latest report from Dartmouth’s Bright Line Watch, America Looks Ahead to a Second Trump Term, examines public faith in the integrity of elections. Their latest report had one striking finding: that Republican political scientists now show strong belief in the integrity of the vote. This new-found trust in our elections, the report notes, could be conditioned on which party wins, making this a fragile peace over the state of elections.