How Much Do You Know about Redistricting?

WASHINGTON – Following race projection announcements in key campaigns and in races that will determine the control of Congress, the American Civil Liberties Union released the following statement from Chief Political and Advocacy Officer Deirdre Schifeling on the results so far of the 2026 midterm elections: “Tonight, voters sent a clear message to politicians: You work for us. Since the day President Trump took office, his administration and allies have been working overtime to take away voters’ power. But American voters have shown through historic turnout that they’ve had enough of a rigged system designed to work for the people in power instead of for them. “From key state supreme court races in Michigan and North Carolina to state legislative races in Georgia and North Carolina, voters uniformly rejected candidates who threaten abortion rights and our right to vote. Voters also stood up for reproductive freedom in Missouri and Virginia, and permanently secured voting rights and marriage equality in Virginia. “However, our work is only half done, and now a new chapter begins. With a new Congress in Washington and state legislative sessions starting in January, now is our moment to create the representative, accountable democracy we have always deserved and remedy the failures of our system that led us to this point. We must unrig the system and ensure that government is used to make ordinary people’s lives better, not to enrich and entrench those in power.” As part of the ACLU’s “Firewall for Freedom” strategy, the organization and its PAC, ACLU Voter Education Fund, made their largest-ever commitment in down ballot races, spending $25.5 million across underfunded but critical state-level campaigns with an outsized impact on our rights and freedoms, from key ballot initiatives to state Supreme Court races, secretaries of state races, and state legislative races.

The Census Bureau has proposed rules for the 2030 Census that would remove millions of noncitizens from the population count used to divide congressional seats among the states. This includes many noncitizens living in the United States lawfully. The rules would also change where everyone else is counted and bar the census from asking about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The Constitution requires counting the “whole number of persons in each State,” and every census since 1790 has counted people where they live, regardless of citizenship. The proposal would distort political representation, weaken the count’s accuracy, and eliminate data needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights laws. The ALCU is urging the Bureau to withdraw the rule entirely.

Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt has worked on elections for 25 years in the government, nonprofits, and academia. He addresses common voter questions and what to expect at the polls this Election Day.

Anchorage, AK – The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Alaska, Common Cause, and League of Women Voters of Alaska issued statements today after a federal judge rejected the Department of Justice’s last-minute attempt to block Alaska’s Senate election results if the Republican candidate did not win. “This desperate attempt to disenfranchise Alaska voters has been swiftly thrown out of court, and that is a win for democracy,” said Ari Savitzky, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The court’s get-out-and-don’t-come-back ruling makes clear that preemptively blocking election results and running an inquisition into the sincerity of voters’ choices would be flatly illegal. Every American should be alarmed that their own Justice Department tried to put voters on trial for how they might vote. That should never happen in this country. The rule of law held, and voters should go to the polls with their heads held high. Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Alaska, and individual Alaska voters, represented by the ACLU National Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Alaska, intervened to protect the voting rights of Alaskans. The ruling rejects DOJ’s lawsuit because the relief the federal government sought was illegal and would have disrupted Alaska’s elections on the eve of voting and violated Alaskans’ right to a secret ballot. “This ruling is a victory for the people of Alaska, reaffirming their voices will be heard, and their votes will be counted,” said Virginia Kase Solomon, president and CEO of Common Cause. “The Trump administration keeps trying tricks to interfere in our election, but they keep failing because our democracy and people-power is strong. Common Cause will continue to defend Americans’ freedom to vote in free and fair elections because politicians don’t dictate election outcomes, people do.” “Today the court upheld our most fundamental voting rights by dismissing the federal government’s frivolous lawsuit,” said Lu-Anne Haukaas Lopez, Executive Director for the ACLU of Alaska. “The decision affirmed what we already know: Alaskans – not the president- decide our elections. The ACLU of Alaska is watching this election closely for other attempts to undermine our elections. We remain committed to protecting and defending the voting rights of all Alaskans.” “We are grateful the district court defended democracy today by dismissing this groundless, frivolous lawsuit,” said Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters. “The voters of Alaska have the right to decide who represents them in the United States Senate, and the Department of Justice has no right to interfere through its groundless demands.” Counting every vote takes time, and it’s unlikely that Alaskans will have final results on Election Night. Alaska election officials follow strict state laws that include steps for receiving, checking, processing, counting, reviewing, and certifying ballots. Some ballots, including mail ballots or ballots that require verification, may take longer to count. Election officials are required by law to certify the election results.