The chairman of the Republican Party in Texas called on the legislature there to make ‘electoral integrity’ the highest legislative priority in 2021, including a call for a reduction in the number of days of early voting. Jason Miller, a leading Trump adviser, told conservative Web site Just The News that Trump intends to stay involved in efforts to preserve the “integrity of the vote,” and the issue at the Republicans’ head. to keep. And VoteRiders, a nonprofit group that helps prospective voters get an ID if they need one to vote, said they expect serious pressure on new voter ID laws in at least five states, while North Carolina could potentially implement new voter ID policies. which was presented in court.
Laws for voter IDs are generally very popular with the general public – a 2018 Pew Research poll found that three-quarters of Americans surveyed support laws requiring voters to provide a photo ID – but activists say it is problematic for several diverse groups of voters.
“They are students and other young people, they are communities of color, they are older adults who no longer drive, people with low incomes, people with disabilities,” said Kathleen Unger, founder of VoteRiders. VoteRiders estimated that up to 25 million eligible voters did not have a government-issued photo ID.
Georgia’s Republicans in particular are intensely focused on their state’s election laws, after the state became the center of Trump’s efforts to undermine confidence in the 2020 election results. Republicans of Georgia have proposed a large number of changes, from limiting the limit that can vote by mail, to limiting the use of ‘dropbox’, which allows people to return absentee ballots without changing the postal system use.
The Republican state Senate caucus has endorsed the termination of absentee votes in Georgia, which was used excessively by Democratic voters in the 2020 election. (More than a third of Biden’s votes in Georgia were cast by mail, compared to just 18 percent of Trump’s votes.) Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who rejected Trump’s fraud claims, also said he supported the lifting of the vote without any apology. the system was too taxing on local election administrators.
However, the GOP legislative leaders of the state do not yet have to agree on exactly what they need to change. Republican Lieutenant General Geoff Duncan, who is the president of the state Senate, told 11Alive News that he would not support ending abstentions without abolishing absenteeism, and State Council spokesman David Ralston also sounded skeptical about the practice. end. Republicans are more universally in line with the requirement for absentee voters to submit a copy of proof of identity when requesting or returning a ballot, which will replace the state’s signature verification system. Georgia already requires voters to show a photo ID when voting in person.
“I think it’s most likely to be signed into law,” said State Senator Larry Walker, the vice president of the Republican Senate caucus. Walker said he would “strongly support” the change and said his voters were deeply concerned, saying he had received thousands of emails, letters and texts.
“A large percentage of my constituents have lost confidence in the integrity of our electoral system,” he said. “So we’re going to try to address things that we feel the public can restore confidence in the system.”
He also rejects the claim that changes will withdraw voters, citing the high turnout of the state. “I do not think any of these ideas are heavy or too restrictive or lead to what I would see as oppression of voters,” he said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a non-partisan organization, 36 states have some form of voter ID legislation. The NCSL classifies Georgia as a ‘strict photo ID’ state, which means that voters without an approved ID must vote for a provisional vote and take steps after the election to have their vote counted.
But Georgia is unique among the closest warring states in 2020 in that Republicans control the governorship and both houses of the state legislature. This changes Democrats, who are broadly opposed to voter ID laws or other proposed elections, such as limiting the absence of votes. Democratic governors in states with Republican legislatures, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, can veto changes to electoral law if there is no two-party agreement on what to change.
“If I look at the attitude of the governments in them, I’m not sure many of them will be able to reach the distance as Georgia will do,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said. , a conservative group. “But I think there’s definitely a lot of interest in Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in Wisconsin.”
In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers have signaled their intention to introduce voter ID laws and are trying to repeal the law of the two parties of the state, allowing the excuse of posts without apology, although the Democrats Governor Tom Wolf stands in their way. The issue could continue during the midterm elections in 2022, when Republicans will try to take over the governorship again.
“It is no secret that further amendments need to be made to the electoral legislation,” Rep. Seth Grove, a Republican who chairs the House State Government Committee in Pennsylvania, said Thursday afternoon during a hearing on state election laws. Democrats and Republicans have proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania election laws. Thursday’s hearing was the first of a planned 14 hearings on election laws.
In Arizona, another swinging state that Biden carried carefully, Republicans in the state Senate passed advanced legislation that would result in more automated versions. Some Republicans have also enacted legislation to abolish the state’s permanent list for early votes – for which a majority of voters are registered – although a co-sponsor of the legislation told the Republic of Arizona: ‘It can not succeed and I want to do not waste my time with it. ”
And in North Carolina, the delay in the state’s voter policy before the midterm elections in 2022 could take effect. In 2018, voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring voter ID, but it was blocked by a federal judge from taking effect for the 2020 cycle. A federal appeals judge has overturned an order that effectively blocked its implementation, but there is an ongoing legal battle in the state as well as the federal courts over the law.
“Electoral integrity, election security, these issues are not going anywhere,” Snead said. “And I firmly believe that if a legislature in a particular state does not reform this cycle, it does not mean that it will never pass a reform, does it?”