As I mentioned in last week’s sum-up, former Attorney General Eric Holder is leading a group focused on redistricting issues on the state legislative level. The group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, last week filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin targeting Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s refusal to hold special elections in two state legislative districts.

As my colleague Allegra Kirkland detailed, Walker’s move is part of a larger trend: Republican officials around the country are putting off holding special elections for legislative seats that were previously held by Republicans. Walker’s office is justifying his decision by saying it’s about saving taxpayer money, but it comes after a Democrat won a special election for a reliably red state Senate seat in December. There will be a hearing on the Dem lawsuit later this month.

There will be hearing in this case on March 22 in Madison via @marceelias https://t.co/TnH9Mrtl5N — Ari Berman (@AriBerman) March 2, 2018

Republicans in Alabama — where a special election last year handed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Doug Jones — are taking the tactic to the next level, by pushing legislation that would eliminate special elections altogether in certain circumstances. On Thursday, the state’s GOP-dominated Senate passed a bill that would end special elections for legislative vacancies where two years or less remain in the term.

Litigation continues in Pennsylvania over GOP-drawn U.S. congressional maps that the state Supreme Court recently threw out. Pennsylvania Republicans have again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, and Justice Samuel Alito is calling for responses from the other participants in the case by Monday afternoon to the GOP request that the Supreme Court intervene to preserve the old map. Alito had rejected a previous request by state Republicans to get involved in their case, and in that instance Alito also called for responses to their request before rejecting it.

On the flip side, there have been a number of recent moves in state legislatures to expand voting rights. Washington’s legislature passed a bill last week aiming to make it easier for communities to establish districts that better represent minority groups. New Jersey Democrats last week introduced a bill that would give voting rights to prisoners and those on probation or parole. And California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Wednesday that pre-registers to vote 16 and 17 year olds when they obtain their drivers licenses or a state ID card.