David Walbert, a veteran voting rights lawyer who has fought for fair elections for decades, warns that Donald Trump is setting the stage for a grim November by applying his 2020 playbook. Walbert recounts his first Supreme Court case in 1982, representing Black voters in Burke County, Georgia, where no Black person had been elected despite 40% of voters being Black due to at-large elections. Federal law banned older discriminatory methods like literacy tests and poll taxes, but structural barriers persisted. In Georgia, fewer than 1% of elected officials were Black while over a quarter of registered voters were Black.
The Supreme Court and the Voting Rights Act
Walbert won the Burke County case in lower courts but faced a new Supreme Court rule requiring proof of intentional discrimination. He helped amend the Voting Rights Act to prohibit practices that 'result in' discrimination regardless of intent. Chief Justice John Roberts, then a young Reagan Justice Department lawyer, opposed the amendment. Now, Roberts leads the court in erasing voting protections, allowing southern states to pass restrictive laws under the guise of preventing 'election fraud' without evidence. These laws reduce voting by minorities and Democrats.
Current Threats to Voting Rights
As the 2026 midterms approach, Trump's campaign to force extreme gerrymandering and federal agencies' actions threaten to rig elections. Trump wants documentary proof of citizenship, despite studies showing non-citizen voting is negligible. He limits mail-in voting while voting by mail himself. The Justice Department advocates voter purges that disproportionately remove minority voters. Recent FBI and DHS raids on voting activists in Democratic-leaning counties echo Civil Rights-era tactics. Ex-Senator Sherrod Brown called the Ohio raid an effort to intimidate voters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton targets Latino organizations with lawsuits under draconian laws.
The Grim Path to November
Trump's false fraud claims set the stage for challenging election results. In 2020, he tried to create uncertainty in states he lost to submit alternate electors. In 2026, federal agencies loyal to Trump could interfere in close elections. The FBI seized 2020 election records from Fulton County, Georgia, based on debunked conspiracy theories. Kash Patel's FBI might use a 'review' to justify seizing ballots in November. In a close election, seizing ballots from Democratic precincts could prevent declaring a winner, leaving the House and Senate as judges. Given current membership, the outcome is predictable. This dystopian scenario was unthinkable years ago but is now plausible.
