Former President Donald Trump, who for months has delegitimized the delegation of consent on the campaign and social media, blamed these procedures for losing his bid for a second term to President Joe Biden. Trump and his allies falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him and that millions of illegal votes, including in Georgia, dropped Biden.
After dozens of legal challenges were rejected by state electoral authorities and the courts, Republicans quickly turned their attention to rejecting state laws based on trust and integrity in the election in a way that Democrats say are members of their political base.
“The good thing about having enough Democrats in my legislature to maintain a veto is that we can stop some of those things,” he said. “It’s going to fall on the states to fight it.”
Cooper, who won re-election in 2020 in a state that carried Trump by less than two percentage points, said the GOP efforts underscore the need for Democrats to take offense in 2022 and increase the number of governorships they control across the country .
Nevertheless, Cooper said he hopes to work with Republican majorities in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly on things like education, health care and investing in clean energy.
“This is a moment we all need to seize together,” he said.
Other governors are more receptive to changing voting rights. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, recently signed a bill that would give people the option to sign an affidavit to confirm their identity if they do not show up at the polls with an approved form of ID. , which hardens a constitutional amendment approved by voters, hardens 2018.
“The aim is not to suppress votes, but the aim is to secure votes,” he said during the POLITICO event.
He added that if there is evidence that people, if they struggle to gain access to the identification needed to vote, will support the efforts to remove the barrier.
“It’s all about expanding our voter registration, our voter turnout. And we want to make sure we do not place unreasonable burdens. I hope that does not lead to that.”