This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnik.

The midterm elections are seven weeks away, and they're often cast as a referendum on,

sometimes a reckoning on, the president and his party.

This year, however, some see democracy itself on the ballot, and one of those people is Mark

Elias.

He's a lawyer and a staunch Democrat, but even Steve Bannon has said he admires Elias,

saying he's crazy, but a fighter.

Elias is fighting some of the most high-profile cases involving voting rights in the United

States.

The Supreme Court will hear two of those cases in its upcoming term, which starts next month.

Staff writer Sue Halpern recently profiled Elias for the magazine, and as she was reporting

her piece, Sue could often only reach Elias late at night, sometimes past midnight, but

recently she caught him at the relatively civilized hour of 8 p.m.

It seems to me, given the fact that every time we talk, you're sitting at your desk

and it's late at night, that this work is no longer a job.

It feels to me that you've found something that you are so passionate about that you can't

stop.

Yeah.

Which may be think that maybe you sleep in your chair?

No, I don't sleep in my chair, but I wake up thinking about this.

I work all day at it.

...