The new clashes over who should preside over the elections come as former President Donald Trump’s allies continue to try to cast doubt on his defeat – arguing that election officials and courts have usurped state laws by loosening voting rules to overcome challenges imposed 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 have submitted 253 bills to restrict access to voting, according to an updated count from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Proposals to restrict the authorities’ powers are “consistent with the pattern that is happening across the country in Republican-dominated legislatures,” said Jonathan Diaz, legal advisor for voting rights at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center. “They are trying to monopolize the election market and make it more difficult to expand voting rights.”
Proponents say their actions are necessary to restore voter confidence in the system – even if it has been hampered by Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud has contributed to his loss.
In Montana, a state that Trump won by double digits last November, a bill drafted by Republican state deputy Llew Jones would require legislative consent before the governor could “suspend the provisions of any statute that prescribes the procedure for an election. “
The bill, he said, is his response to a decision by then Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, gave counties the choice to conduct the vote entirely in the mail last year.
“I don’t believe there was any fraud in Montana,” Jones told CNN. “That said, perception is a reality in this world.”
“The more scrutinized and more transparent the process is,” he said, “the more likely there is to be a belief that the process has validity and integrity.”
New measures in battle states
In Georgia, where Republicans in the state legislature sponsored a flurry of bills to restrict voting after Biden’s victory, a measure introduced this week would eliminate the secretary of state’s voting powers on the five-state electoral council.
Current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger faced Trump’s ire for not following unfounded conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud.
A parallel bill in the Georgia legislature would give the state electoral council the right to take temporary control over the administration of local elections and the electoral registration.
“The intention here is to help when there is a problem and after a very thorough investigation has taken place, and to go and help that county,” said state representative Shaw Blackmon of Georgia, a Republican who helped sponsor the two 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 spokesman, Raffensperger declined to comment on the measures. On Wednesday afternoon, he tweeted that his office is “reviewing” the bills that are currently underway in the Georgia legislature.
“As soon as we see something that prioritizes the security and accessibility of the elections, we will give support,” wrote Raffenspreger. “Ultimately, many of these projects are reactionary to a three-month disinformation campaign that could have been avoided.”
In Arizona, another battle state that hit Biden last fall, a pending bill would make it a crime for any state official to “modify any term, filing date, filing date or other election-related date that is provided for in the bylaws. ”
Proponents of the bill say it is necessary after legal disputes resulted in an extension of the voter registration deadline in 2020. Two advocacy groups went to court to change the deadlines, arguing that restrictions on the pandemic led to a dramatic drop in the number of subscribers to vote. After several legal skirmishes, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, drew up an agreement with defenders about a registration cutoff date – which some Republicans have classified as a subversion of state law.
At a hearing this month, state deputy Jake Hoffman, a Republican who sponsored the measure, argued that “it is not a good policy for these deadlines to be moved on a whim.”
When considering criminal penalties for employees who change deadlines, “the legislature is saying, ‘We are the only people in the world to whom we can entrust the elections,'” Alex Gulotta, state director of All Voting is Local, told CNN. “Election officials who are professional are not to be trusted. The governor cannot be trusted. The secretary of state cannot be trusted.” “
Control conflicts
Clashes over control of the elections take place in a broader scenario of state legislatures, mostly Republican, moving to restrict the authority that governors exercised during the pandemic to limit meetings and close schools and businesses to prevent the spread of the virus .
Lawmakers in at least 40 states and two territories have submitted more than 200 bills or resolutions this year that would limit or impose greater oversight over governors’ powers or spending decisions during an emergency, 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 NCSL elections and redistricting programs.
One of the biggest battles is going on in Kentucky, where Democratic Governor Andy Beshear has gone to court to challenge a package of laws from the Republican-controlled legislature that limit his emergency powers. A measure takes away the ability of the governor and the secretary of state to change electoral procedures.
Last year, as the pandemic intensified, Beshear and Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams signed an agreement that expanded mail and early voting in the state.
Over the weekend, minority mayor Steve Scalise refused to admit that the presidential election was not stolen, insisting that disputes still persist because “some states … have not followed their state laws” in administering the elections. . “Once voters are counted, yes, he is the legitimate president,” said the Louisiana Republican about Biden on ABC’s “This Week” program
“But if you are going to ignore the fact that there were states that did not follow their own state laws established by law,” Scalise added. “This is the central issue, with which millions of people are still not happy.”
The United States Constitution empowers state legislatures to define “times, places and manner” for Congressional elections, subject to Congressional authority to make its own changes.
But Rick Hasen, an electoral law expert who teaches at the University of California, Irvine, said some Republicans are proposing a “more vigorous version” of a doctrine that argues that state lawmakers have broad authority to oversee even the smallest details in administration. of the elections.
“If you can’t present the fraud argument because you can’t pinpoint cases of widespread fraud in the 2020 elections, you need another argument,” said Hasen.
Whether the courts endorse the so-called “doctrine of the independent state legislature,” he said, remains an open question.