Bob Barnes for WaPo:

Elias, a go-to lawyer for Democrats in recount fights and redistricting battles, has now taken a prominent and somewhat controversial place among the coalition of groups challenging a wave of state election laws that were rewritten in recent years.

 With a multimillion-dollar commitment from liberal mega-donor George Soros, Elias is challenging laws that, he argues, diminish the impact of important Democratic Party constituencies of African Americans, Latinos and young people…

The legal battles against voting restrictions continue to be led by civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Rights Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Advancement Project and others.

But Elias’s efforts explicitly on behalf of Democrats have made 2016 different. Besides joining the efforts of civil rights groups in several states, he has also struck out on his own, bringing additional claims in states that are especially important for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and future Democratic candidates. These include Ohio, Arizona and Virginia.

Some who have worked on voting issues for years are wary of the optics. “I love Marc, but I want to be very clear about who we are and who he represents,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and general counsel of the NAACP LDF. “I don’t want what we have been doing for years [protecting minority voting rights] to be dismissed as partisan.”

She adds that as a civil rights lawyer, “I sued plenty of Democrats.”

Elias joined civil rights groups in some cases but said he also filed lawsuits in places where a favorable ruling will help the Democratic Party.

“We’re challenging the laws in the states in which we have the greatest concern,” he said. “Regardless of who the plaintiff is, protecting civil rights ought to be something that we all strive to do.”