Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Arizona and other states seek to tighten control over election conduct

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The new confrontation over who should hold the election comes as allies of former President Donald Trump continue to try to cast doubt on his loss – arguing that election officials and the courts have usurped the laws states when they relaxed voting rules to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic. . And they represent the last front in the ongoing political war over voting rules.

As of this month, state lawmakers in 43 states had introduced 253 bills to restrict voting access, according to an updated tally by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

The proposals to reduce the powers of civil servants are “consistent with the pattern that is occurring across the country in Republican-dominated legislatures,” Jonathan Diaz, voting rights legal adviser at the campaign’s non-partisan Legal Center. “They are trying to corner the market by holding elections and making it more difficult to extend the right to vote.”

Supporters say their actions are necessary to restore voter confidence in the system – even though it has been battered by Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud contributed to its downfall.

In Montana, a Trump state won in double digits last November, a bill drafted by Republican State Representative Llew Jones would require legislative consent before the governor could “stay the provisions of any law prescribing procedure for an election ”.

The bill, he said, is his response to a decision by the government of the day. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, to give counties the option of voting entirely by mail last year.

“I don’t believe there was fraud in Montana,” Jones told CNN. “That being said, perception is reality in this world.”

“The more audited and transparent the process,” he said, “the more likely it is that the process is believed to be valid and fair.”

New Measures in Battlefield States

In Georgia, where Republicans in the state legislature sponsored a series of bills to restrict voting after Biden’s victory there, a measure introduced this week would eliminate the Secretary of State’s voting powers. within the Council of the five Member States.

Current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has faced Trump’s wrath for failing to pursue unfounded conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud.

A Fulton County prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into a January appeal in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat in Georgia.

An accompanying bill for the Georgian legislature would give the state electoral commission the right to temporarily assume control over the administration of local elections and voter registration.

“The intention here is to help when there’s a problem and after a very thorough investigation has taken place, and to go and help this county,” said Shaw Blackmon, a Republican who helped sponsor the two. law projects. Blackmon said the bill that would allow the electoral council to temporarily control local elections would add “checks and balances” to the state’s voting process to increase confidence in the system.

Through a spokesperson, Raffensperger declined to comment on the measures. On Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted that his office was “revising” bills being drafted in the Georgia Legislature.

“Once we see something that prioritizes safe and accessible elections, we will lend our support,” Raffenspreger wrote. “Ultimately, many of these bills are reactionary to a preventable three-month disinformation campaign.”

In Arizona, another battlefield state that switched to Biden last fall, a pending bill would make it a felony for any state official to “change any deadline, filing date, submission date or other election-related date provided for in law. ”

Supporters of the bill say it is necessary after court challenges resulted in an extension of the voter registration deadline in 2020. Two rights groups had gone to court to move the deadlines, arguing that pandemic restrictions had resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of people registered to vote. After several court skirmishes, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs reached a deal with lawyers on a registration deadline – which some Republicans call a hijacking of state law.

In a hearing this month, State Representative Jake Hoffman, a Republican who sponsored the measure, argued that it is “not good policy for these deadlines to be moved on a whim “.

In considering criminal penalties for officials who change the timelines, “the legislature says,” We are the only people in the world who can be trusted with the elections, “” state director Alex Gulotta told CNN Arizona All Voting is Local. “” We cannot trust election officials who are professionals. You can’t trust the governor. You can’t trust the Secretary of State. “”

The measure is one of a series of election-related bills that the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature considered this year. They range from a bill that would require voters to get notarized signatures on their mail-in ballots to a proposal that would give the legislature the power to choose the state’s presidential voters.

Conflicts for control

The clashes over election control come against a larger backdrop of predominantly Republican legislatures attempting to reduce the authority that governors wielded during the pandemic to limit gatherings and shut down schools and businesses to prevent the spread of the disease. virus.

Lawmakers from at least 40 states and two territories have introduced more than 200 bills or resolutions this year that would limit or require greater oversight of governors’ powers or emergency spending decisions, according to the National Conference of state legislatures (NCSL).

“There has always been tension between branches of government, and when an emergency arises those tensions surface,” said Wendy Underhill, who oversees the elections and redistribution programs at NCSL.

One of the biggest battles is taking place in Kentucky, where Democratic Governor Andy Beshear has gone to court to challenge a set of laws in the Republican-controlled legislature that limit his emergency powers. A measure deprives the governor and secretary of state of the ability to change electoral procedures.

Last year, as the pandemic raged, Beshear and Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams struck a deal that expanded mail and early voting in the state.

Months after election day, Trump’s allies continue to argue that the sole power to set electoral rules lies with state legislatures – rather than with governors, electoral supervisors or judges who interpret state constitutions that enshrine the voting rights.

Over the weekend, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise refused to concede that the presidential election had not been stolen, insisting that disputes persist because “a few states .. . did not follow their laws “in administering elections. “Once the voters are counted, yes, he’s the rightful president,” the Louisiana Republican said of Biden on ABC’s “This Week.”

“But if you want to ignore the fact that there were states that did not follow their own laws established by law,” Scalise added. “This is the problem at the heart, which millions of people are still not satisfied with.”

The United States Constitution empowers state legislatures to fix “the times, places and terms” of elections to Congress, subject to the authority of Congress to make its own changes.

But Rick Hasen, an electoral law expert who teaches at the University of California, Irvine, said some Republicans are advancing a more “beefy” version of a doctrine that argues that state lawmakers have broad authority to oversee the smallest details in the administration of the elections.

“If you can’t make the fraud argument because you can’t report cases of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, you need another argument,” Hasen said.

Whether the courts endorse the so-called “independent state legislature doctrine,” he said, remains an open question.

Just this week, the United States Supreme Court dismissed an appeal that focused on who has final say over election decisions. In that case, Republicans challenged a decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that allowed ballots received up to three days after polling day to be counted to reflect the hardships imposed by the pandemic. The plaintiffs argued that the state court exceeded its authority and should have allowed a polling day deadline passed by the state legislature to stand.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito expressed their dissent, saying the court should have heard the case to clarify the rules for future elections.

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