States Rein In License-Plate Surveillance, the DNC Backs Down on Ranked Choice, and Primary Problems Pile Up

Aug 23, 2026

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It’s Saturday, August 22, and time for your Democracy in the States’ Weekly Roundup.

This week’s biggest story ran almost everywhere at once: Flock Safety, the license-plate surveillance company whose cameras now sit in thousands of communities nationwide, tightened its own rules after months of cities, lawmakers, and civil liberties groups questioning how the network is used, and in several states, being abused outright. Meanwhile, in the courts, an abortion case is shaping up to return with a new framing focused on women’s health, and legal experts spent the week cataloging just how far the Trump administration is willing to work around the losses it’s already racked up there. And in a reversal few saw coming, the DNC backed down on a proposed ban on ranked choice voting after backlash from reform advocates, a small win in a week that also brought a new legal fight over open primaries and a fresh round of primary-day operational failures across several states.

We’re covering these developments and more on election administration and voter access, ranked choice and open primary reform, license-plate surveillance pushback, and the fight over the Supreme Court and DOJ’s reach into state elections below.

Ballots, Recounts, and Technical Failures

Primary day itself went smoothly in most places, but the mechanics broke down in enough places to spot a few trends. In Arizona, more than 50,000 ballots never reached voters at all, a number that’s roughly in line with past elections. In Detroit, mishandled absentee ballots meant 13 voters were effectively disenfranchised, while a modem-transmission failure in two Wisconsin counties held up election results reporting entirely. New Mexico poll workers in one rural county wrongly required voters to show ID during the June primary, a legal requirement the state doesn’t actually have. And, razor-thin margins are producing their own aftermath: a disputed Michigan mayoral race, a 4-vote Washington state Senate primary, and an Indiana candidate’s emergency request to pause certification are all headed to recount or appeal.

ALASKA: Polls open at 7 a.m. on Alaska’s pick-one, top-four statewide primary election day (Alaska Beacon).
ARIZONA: Over 50,000 ballots never made it to voters in Arizona’s primary election. That isn’t unusual. (Arizona Mirror).
MICHIGAN: ‘Left behind’: 13 absentee ballots go uncounted in hotly contested Michigan primary (VoteBeat).
NEW MEXICO: New Mexico poll workers in rural county required IDs to vote during June primary, observers say (Source New Mexico).
WISCONSIN: Issues with modem-based systems held up election results reporting in two Wisconsin counties (VoteBeat).
INDIANA: Deery asks Indiana Supreme Court to take recount case, seeks emergency ballot pause (Indiana Capital Chronicle).
WASHINGTON: WA state Senate primary separated by 4 votes, set for recount (Washington State Standard).
MICHIGAN: 37 Hamtramck ballots could flip mayoral race after Michigan Supreme Court declines appeal (Michigan Advance).

Access Restrictions and Intimidation at the Polls

Separate from this week’s administration errors, a handful of stories point to deliberate choices that make voting harder. North Carolina’s election board denied a voting site at the nation’s largest HBCU for the second time, and the state’s Republican-majority board backed county-level GOP decisions to cut Sunday early voting hours in 10 more counties, continuing a broader statewide contraction of Sunday voting since Republicans took control of the state and county boards last year. In Wisconsin, three legal organizations and a coalition of pro-democracy groups warned the Sheboygan County sheriff’s office that sending deputies to polling places on primary day risked intimidating voters. The sheriff’s office called the brief check-ins a longstanding, routine practice, but critics noted the sheriff himself was on that day’s ballot.

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina election board denies voting site at nation’s largest HBCU for second time (Democracy Docket).
NORTH CAROLINA: Republicans on the NC elections board agree to drop Sunday early voting hours in 10 more counties (North Carolina Newsline).
WISCONSIN: Sheboygan County sheriff’s deputies at polls ignite voter intimidation concerns (Wisconsin Examiner).

DNC Backs Down on Ranked Choice as Open Primaries Gain a New Legal Defender

Reform advocates had a pretty good week. After reformers and reporters picked up on a quietly-approved rule change and pushed back, the DNC reversed course and backed down on a proposed ban on ranked choice voting. Separately, Maryland’s crowded, low-plurality primary results made their own case for the reform this week, an argument reformers are likely to keep pointing to. And, Veterans for All Voters filed to intervene in a South Carolina lawsuit defending the state’s open-primary system, framing the fight explicitly around veterans’ service to a system that shouldn’t lock independents out. Money-in-politics fights moved too: Alaska voters approved a new cap on direct campaign contributions with 71% support, but a separate November ballot measure would go much further, repealing the entire 2020 reform package that created the state’s top-four primary, its ranked choice voting system, and its dark-money disclosure rules all at once. In Iowa, one candidate made the case for electing more independents to Congress entirely.

MARYLAND: Maryland’s primary results prove it’s time for ranked choice voting (Maryland Matters).
NATIONAL: DNC Backs Down on Ranked Choice Voting Ban After Backlash (Independent Voter News).
NATIONAL: South Carolina’s Open Primary System Is Headed to Federal Court. (Veterans for All Voters).
ALASKA: Alaska Caps Campaign Cash — Now Voters Face a Dark Money Fight (Independent Voter News).
KANSAS: End Citizens United president says U.S. Supreme Court decision already impacting midterms (Kansas Reflector).
IOWA: Michael Bridgford: Independents in Congress would help get things done (Iowa Capital Dispatch).

States and Cities Push Back on Flock’s License-Plate Surveillance Network

This was the week the backlash against Flock Safety’s license-plate reader network went from scattered to national. Flock itself announced tightened safeguards as states and cities across the country began questioning how the system is used. By this newsletter’s own count, the same wire report ran under matching headlines on more than 20 other state-outlet sites this week, and documented cases of police misusing the cameras are fueling the fight state by state. Utah’s governor said he’s “deeply troubled” by the cameras and ordered a review, while a Wisconsin police officer was sentenced for abusing Flock access, part of what local reporters are calling a statewide reckoning. Several Arkansas cities pulled the plug on Flock cameras entirely, Rhode Island municipalities are resisting installation outright, and Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced legislation to add guardrails before the backlash grows further.

NATIONAL: Flock Safety tightens safeguards as states, cities question surveillance network (Georgia Recorder).
UTAH: Utah governor says he’s ‘deeply troubled’ by Flock cameras, calls for review to protect privacy (Utah News Dispatch).
WISCONSIN: Menasha officer sentenced for abusing Flock as statewide reckoning continues (Wisconsin Examiner).
ARKANSAS: Several Arkansas cities pull plug on Flock cameras (Arkansas Advocate).
RHODE ISLAND: As municipalities across Rhode Island resist Flock cameras, McKee orders review (Rhode Island Current).
PENNSYLVANIA: Pa. lawmakers propose guardrails on automatic license plate cameras as backlash grows (Pennsylvania Capital Star).

Abortion Returns to the Supreme Court as Trump Tests the Limits of His Court Wins

A federal judge in Idaho ruled that the 14th Amendment provides a narrow constitutional right to an abortion when a pregnancy threatens a patient’s health, the first ruling since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health to find any constitutional abortion right at all. Legal historian Mary Ziegler says the case could reach the Supreme Court and mark the start of a slow erosion of Dobbs, the same way anti-abortion advocates spent decades chipping away at Roe v. Wade before it was overturned. Meanwhile, legal experts spent the week documenting how far the Trump administration is willing to work around the Supreme Court losses it’s already taken on issues from birthright citizenship to tariffs. States aren’t waiting to find out how far that goes: several are moving to fortify their own election systems against further federal intervention, and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes unloaded on federal cybersecurity officials directly during a recent multistate election security call, reflecting rising tension as CISA’s support for states has scaled back under the second Trump administration.

NATIONAL: Abortion could return to Supreme Court, this time with a focus on women’s health (Idaho Capital Sun).
NATIONAL: Trump’s court workarounds push limits but are within legal bounds, experts say (Daily Montanan).
NATIONAL: No more ‘hypothetical situations’: States move to fortify elections against Trump (Colorado Newsline).
ARIZONA: ‘I don’t trust you’: Tensions boil over on Trump administration’s election security call (Arizona Mirror).

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