3/27/21
Republican state legislators engaged in a nationwide effort to rewrite ballot access laws after the highest-turnout, most secure election in history scored their first major achievement Thursday when Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a sweeping overhaul package into law that will restrict voter access to absentee ballots and ballot drop boxes. In other states, Democrats watched with rising anxiety, knowing their legislatures are next. "We've been watching Georgia pretty closely, and we knew our legislative Republicans were likely to introduce something as well," said Michigan state Sen. Stephanie Chang (D), who represents part of Detroit and its southern suburbs. The day before Kemp signed Georgia's legislative package, Michigan Republicans introduced 39 bills meant to change a voting process that resulted in President Biden carrying the state by 154,000 votes in 2020. Among the measures are proposals to limit election officials' ability to send out absentee ballot applications, require a copy of a voter's identification when submitting an absentee ballot, and a limit on drop boxes. Those measures add to the more than 250 bills introduced in legislatures across the country this year that will place new requirements or restrictions on the means of voting, according to tallies by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
"Republicans have essentially set the fire by claiming that there's widespread voter fraud and convincing their base that this is true, and then they're acting like the fire fighter coming to extinguish the voter fraud that doesn't exist by passing all these unnecessary voter suppression bills," said state Rep. Chris Turner (D), chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. In interviews, Democratic legislators drew a direct parallel between former President Trump's false claims of election malfeasance, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol and the bills making progress in Republican-controlled legislatures today. "After their failed coup attempt, Republicans across the country, especially in Georgia and Arizona, are on to Plan B," said Arizona state Rep. Athena Salman, the Democratic minority whip. "I have not heard an argument [from Republicans] that is not connected to the big lie." In states such as Georgia, Arizona and Texas, where Republicans hold control of both chambers of the state legislature and the governorship, there is little Democrats can do to delay or vote down the new voting restrictions. A provision in the just-passed Georgia law would make it a felony to pass out bottled water to voters waiting in line.
