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Former President Donald Trump, who spent months delegitimizing mail-in voting on the campaign trail and social media, accused the procedures of losing his candidacy for a second term to President Joe Biden. Trump and his allies falsely alleged that the election was stolen from him and that millions of illegitimate votes, including in Georgia, put Biden on top.
After dozens of court challenges were pushed back by election officials and courts, Republicans quickly turned to revising state election laws on the grounds of promoting confidence and integrity in elections in a way that , Democrats say, targets members of their political base.
“The good thing about having enough Democrats in my state legislature to support a veto is that we can stop some of these things,” he said. “It will fall on the States to fight against this.”
Cooper, who was re-elected in 2020 in a Trump state driven by less than two percentage points, said GOP efforts underscore the need for Democrats to go on the offensive in 2022 and increase the number of mansions in the governor they control across the country.
Nonetheless, Cooper said he hoped to be able to work with Republican majorities in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly on topics such as education, healthcare and clean energy investments.
“This is a moment we should all embrace together,” he said.
Other governors are more receptive to changes in electoral law. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, recently signed a bill removing the ability for people to sign an affidavit to prove their identity if they do not show up at the polls with an approved form of identity, reinforcing a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018.
“The goal is not to suppress votes, but the goal is to get votes,” he said at the POLITICO event.
He added that if it was proven that if people had difficulty accessing the identification documents needed to vote, he would support efforts to remove this barrier.
“I’m all about expanding our voter registration, our voter turnout. And we want to make sure we’re not putting unreasonable burdens. I hope that doesn’t create that.”
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