As Trump pushes fraud claims, Republicans pledge tougher voting
rules
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[December 21, 2020]
By Joseph Tanfani and Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican state
lawmakers have begun to use President Donald Trump’s charges of
voter fraud to push for new restrictions on voting.
Although the claims have failed in court to overturn Democrat Joe
Biden's Nov. 3 election win, Republican lawmakers, party officials and
Trump’s allies in some of the hardest-fought states have begun
discussing new rules that rights advocates say could suppress votes in
future elections.
Pennsylvania Republicans are considering ending absentee voting rules
they backed a year ago. Georgia’s Senate Republicans say they want to
“fix” the state’s election system with new restrictions. Republicans in
Wisconsin want to change early-voting procedures. And new rules have
been floated in Texas.
“This appears to be laying the groundwork for what may be a more massive
and coordinated voter suppression effort in the new year,” said Kristen
Clarke, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
“It is a brazen attempt to undermine and obstruct the progress that has
been made in 2020 to make it easier for people to vote amid the
pandemic.”
Steve Guest, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said
claims that the party’s proposals amounted to voter suppression were
“completely baseless.” “Election laws need to be properly followed so
Americans can have confidence in the results,” said Guest. “The RNC will
never stop fighting to ensure free and fair elections.”
State and federal judges -- some appointed by Trump -- have dismissed
more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump or his allies alleging election
fraud and other irregularities. Independent experts, governors and state
election officials from both parties say there has been no evidence of
widespread fraud.
A record 158 million people voted in November’s elections, in part
thanks to new rules that made voting easier during the worst public
health crisis in a century. A survey by New York University’s
nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found that 29 states and the
District of Columbia passed laws and changed procedures to expand voting
access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some eased rules on voting by mail
or extended early voting to reduce crowds.
State-level Republican proposals to unwind such rules have gained
traction with some of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress.
“The election in many ways was stolen and the only way it will be fixed
is by in the future reinforcing the (state) laws,” Republican Senator
Rand Paul of Kentucky told a recent hearing without providing evidence
of fraud. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Nov. 9 that
oversight of mail-in voting needed tightening. “If we don’t do something
about voting by mail, we’re going to lose the ability to elect a
Republican in this country," he told Fox News.
The new proposals would expand on past Republican Party-led
restrictions, including strict voter identification laws passed by nine
states since 2005 and voter roll purges that voting-rights advocates say
have disproportionately affected minority voters, who tend to back the
Democratic Party.
Marc Elias, an attorney who has led legal efforts for the Democratic
Party and Biden's campaign, said he believes the latest Republican moves
are a preview of a coming voter suppression strategy across the country.
“I am very concerned that they will use these false claims of fraud,
which have been rejected in every court that heard them, as an excuse to
disenfranchise voters,” Elias said in an email to Reuters. “They’re
trying to do what they have been doing for the last year — or more — to
make voting harder in general and in particular for Black, brown and
young voters.”
“WE WILL FIX THIS”
Republicans have long used unfounded theories of illegal voting https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-voter-fraud-facts-explai/explainer-despite-trump-claims-voter-fraud-is-extremely-rare-here-is-how-u-s-states-keep-it-that-way-idUSKBN2601HG
to justify purges of registration rolls, strict voter identification
requirements and restrictions on mail-in voting. A Reuters investigation
published on Sept. 9 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-voter-fraud-special-repo/special-report-how-a-small-group-of-u-s-lawyers-pushed-voter-fraud-fears-into-the-mainstream-idUSKBN2601GZfound
that the once-fringe election-fraud theories have become a staple of
Republican politics, due largely to the efforts of a small network of
lawyers who have promoted it for two decades, funded by right-wing
foundations.
In 23 states, Republicans now control both the legislature and the
governor's office, compared to 15 for Democrats, giving the party strong
influence over legislation at a time when Trump’s relentless voter fraud
claims have convinced many Republican voters that existing safeguards
are inadequate. Polls show that a majority of Republican voters believe
those allegations. And a proliferation of right-wing media outlets have
amplified them.
In Wisconsin, a battleground state that flipped to Biden after voting
for Trump in 2016, the executive director of the state Republican Party,
Mark Jefferson, told Reuters the state party would work to tighten rules
around early voting.
Republicans controlled the state legislature and governorship for much
of the last decade, and introduced rules like a strict voter ID law.
They now argue that state election officials and Democrat-run localities
overstepped state law in their efforts to make voting easier during the
pandemic and opened the voting process to fraud. Republicans, for
instance, claimed that events in city parks to collect absentee ballots
from voters were improper. Courts have rejected Republican lawsuits
making such arguments and seeking to overturn Trump’s loss in the state.
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President Donald Trump speaks, with a flag behind him, during a
campaign rally at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.,
September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo
But Jefferson argues that election integrity is at stake, and says
Republican lawmakers are already discussing how to increase
oversight on early voting, mail-in voting and drop boxes. In
Wisconsin and other swing states, those methods heavily favored
Biden over Trump.
In Georgia, a traditionally Republican-dominated state that Biden
narrowly won, Senate Republicans said on Dec. 8 that they would seek
to eliminate “no excuse” mail voting, which allows people to send
ballots by mail without providing a reason, and to require a photo
ID to request a mail ballot. Currently, any eligible voter can vote
by mail without stating a reason, such as illness or travel, while
no photo ID is required to receive an absentee ballot.
“Republicans have heard the calls of millions of Georgians who have
raised deep and heartfelt concerns that state law has been violated
and our elections process abused,” the state senators said in a
statement. “We will fix this.”
Georgia’s House Republicans had not reviewed those proposals but
will hold hearings on election integrity, said Kaleb McMichen, a
spokesman for House speaker David Ralston. Georgia’s Republican
governor and secretary of state have also endorsed new restrictions
such as requiring absentee voters to provide identification to
request their ballot.
More immediately, the Republican National Committee and Georgia
Republican Party have filed lawsuits ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff
election that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate,
seeking to change rules that were in effect in November. They want
to curtail use of drop boxes for mail ballots in the election for
two Senate seats and have asked for other limits on absentee voting.
A battle over voting access is also shaping up in Texas, another
state long dominated by Republicans but where Democrats have made
inroads.
Texas already has some of the country’s toughest voting laws. Since
the election, Democrats have proposed expanding early voting to more
counties and making election days state holidays. Republicans, who
control the state government, have countered with proposed new
restrictions, including a ban on officials’ from sending out mail
ballot applications to voters who haven’t requested them and
criminal penalties for officials who allow ineligible people to
vote.
'LASTING DAMAGE'
In Pennsylvania, the debate over mail voting is an example of how
Trump's fraud rhetoric has left Republicans in a political bind.
In 2019, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature reached a
compromise on an election bill with Democratic Governor Tom Wolf.
The package, known as Act 77, eliminated straight-party voting that
allowed voters to check a single box on a ballot to vote for all
candidates from one party, a Republican priority.
It also permitted an expansion of mail voting for all Pennsylvania
voters. Most of the opposition to the bill came from Democrats. All
Republican members of the state Senate voted for the bill, and all
but two Republicans in the state House.
But as many Trump supporters blame mail-in ballots for Trump's
election defeat in Pennsylvania, the 2019 law has become a liability
for the Republicans who voted for it, said Charlie Gerow, a
Republican lawyer and consultant in the state. “Those folks sitting
around the diner talking politics, they are talking about Act 77,”
he said.
In the wake of the election, state House Representative Jim Gregory,
who voted for the law in 2019, has announced he will sponsor a
measure repealing the law, saying his office had “been flooded with
calls and emails from constituents who had issues with mail in
ballots.”
Bryan Cutler, the House majority leader, who also voted for the law,
has promised to focus on election rules in the next session to
“ensure the chaos and confusion of the 2020 election are not
repeated.”
Both men have tried to shift blame to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
and Democratic Secretary of State for decisions on how it was
implemented, including allowing ballots to be counted if they
arrived by mail within three days after Election Day. Gregory
declined requests for an interview, while Cutler did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.
One main target of anger has been Al Schmidt, the Republican on the
three-member election board in Philadelphia. Before and after the
election, Schmidt defended the integrity of the Philadelphia vote
count in media appearances – and became a lightning rod for the rage
of Trump supporters. He says he has been called a “traitor,” and has
police protection at his home because of threats.
“The myth is being built, and it’s being accepted,” he said. “That’s
the lasting damage. Who’s going to clean up this mess at the end of
the day?”
(Joseph Tanfani reported from New Jersey and Simon Lewis from
Washington. Additional reporting by Tim Reid. Editing by Soyoung Kim
and Jason Szep)
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