The president of the Texas Republican Party asked the local legislature to make “electoral integrity” the top legislative priority in 2021, calling, among other things, for a reduction in the number of early voting days. Jason Miller, one of Trump’s top advisers, told conservative Just The News that Trump plans to stay involved in “voting integrity” efforts, keeping the issue at the top of Republican minds. And VoteRiders, a nonprofit group that helps potential voters obtain an ID card if they need one to vote, said it expects a big boost for new electoral identity laws in at least five states, while Carolina Norte could potentially implement new electoral identity policies that were held in court.
Voter identification laws are generally very popular with the general public – a 2018 Pew Research survey found that three quarters of Americans surveyed supported laws that required voters to present a photo ID – but activists say that they are problematic for several disparate constituencies.
“They are students and other young people, they are communities of color, they are older adults who no longer drive, people with low income, people with disabilities,” said Kathleen Unger, the founder of VoteRiders. VoteRiders estimated that up to 25 million Americans of voting age did not have an official photo ID.
Georgia Republicans, in particular, are intensely focused on their state’s electoral laws, after the state became the epicenter of Trump’s attempts to undermine confidence in the 2020 election results. Georgia Republicans have proposed a series of changes , from imposing limits on who can vote by mail to limiting the use of deposit boxes, which allow people to return absent ballots without using the postal system.
The Republican state Senate caucus endorsed the end of the no-excuse vote in Georgia, which was disproportionately used by Democratic voters in the 2020 elections. percent of Trump’s votes.) Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who rejected Trump’s allegations of fraud, also said he supported canceling the postal vote without apology because the system was too taxing on local election administrators.
However, the legislative leaders of the Republican Party state still have to agree on exactly what to change. Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, who is the president of the state Senate, told 11Alive News that he would not support the end of the vote without excuses for absences, and State House President David Ralston also seemed skeptical about the end of the practice. Republicans are more universally aligned behind requiring absentee voters to present a copy of an identity document when they request or return a ballot, which would replace the state’s signature verification system. Georgia already requires voters to show a photo ID when voting in person.
“I think it is more likely to be enacted into law,” said state senator Larry Walker, vice president of the Senate Republican bench. Walker said he would “very much” support this change and said his constituents are deeply concerned, saying he has received thousands of emails, letters and texts.
“A large percentage of my voters have lost faith in the integrity of our electoral system,” he said. “So, let’s try to resolve some things that we feel can restore public confidence in the system.”
He also rejected the claim that the changes would deprive voters, citing the state’s high turnout. “I don’t think any of these ideas are costly or excessively restrictive or lead to what I would consider suppressing voters,” he said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a non-partisan organization, 36 states have some form of voter identification law in place. The NCSL classifies Georgia as a “strict photo identity” state, which means that voters without an approved identity must vote for a provisional ballot and take action after the election to have their ballots count.
But Georgia is unique among the states closest to the 2020 battlefield, as Republicans control the government and the two houses of the state legislature. This excludes Democrats, who are broadly opposed to voter identification laws or other proposed electoral changes, such as limiting absentee votes. Democratic governors in states with Republican legislatures, such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, can veto changes to electoral laws if there is no bipartisan agreement on what to change.
“Looking at the willingness of governments in them, I’m not sure that many of them will really be able to go the distance that Georgia will,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, a conservative group. “But I think there is certainly a lot of interest in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.”
In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers signaled their intention to introduce voter identification laws and try to repeal the state’s bipartisan law that allows voting by mail without apology, although Democratic Governor Tom Wolf is on the way. The issue could seep into the mid-term elections of 2022, when Republicans will try to retake the government.
“It is no secret that further changes to the electoral law must be made,” said Representative Seth Grove, from the state of Pennsylvania, who chairs the State Government Committee of the Chamber, at a hearing on state electoral laws on Thursday afternoon. Friday, noting that both Democrats and Republicans have proposed changes to Pennsylvania electoral laws. Thursday’s hearing was the first of a total of 14 planned electoral law hearings.
In Arizona, another undefined state that Biden narrowly passed, Republicans in the state Senate have moved forward with legislation that would result in more automatic recounts. Some Republicans have also introduced legislation to abolish the state’s permanent early voting list – for which a super majority majority of voters are registered – although a co-sponsor of the legislation told the Republic of Arizona: “It cannot be passed and I don’t want to lose my time with that. “
And in North Carolina, the state’s voter ID delay policy may go into effect before the 2022 mid-term election. In 2018, voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring voter registration, but was prevented by a federal judge to take effect in the 2020 cycle. A federal appeals judge overturned an order that effectively blocked its implementation, but there is a legal battle going on in state and federal courts over the law.
“Electoral integrity, electoral security, these issues are not going anywhere,” said Snead. “And I firmly believe that if a state legislature does not approve reform in this cycle, that does not mean it will never approve a reform, right?”