ATLANTA (AP) – Changes in the way millions of Americans voted this year contributed to record turnout, but that does not guarantee that measures to facilitate voting will be maintained for future elections.
Republicans in key states who voted for President-elect Joe Biden are already pushing for new restrictions, especially for absentee voting. It’s an option that many states expanded in the midst of the hugely popular coronavirus outbreak that helped ensure one of the smoothest election days in recent years.
President Donald Trump has been relentless in his attacks on email voting as he continues to challenge the legitimacy of an election he lost. Despite the lack of evidence and dozens of losses in the courts, his allegations of widespread election fraud have gained strength with some Republican elected officials.
They promise to crack down on ballots and threaten to back down other steps that have made it easier for people to vote.
“This myth could not justify throwing election results, nor can it justify imposing additional burdens on voters that will disenfranchise many Americans,” said Wendy Weiser, head of the democracy program at NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice. School of Law.
An estimated 108 million people voted before election day, either by early face-to-face voting or by mail or leaving votes in absentia. This accounted for almost 70% of all votes cast, after states took steps to make it easier to avoid polling stations during the pandemic.
A few states sent out ballots to all registered voters, while others dropped the requirements for voters to need a specific excuse to vote for absenteeism. Many states added deployment boxes and expanded early voting options.
The changes were popular with voters and did not lead to widespread fraud. A group of election officials, including representatives of the federal cybersecurity agency, called the 2020 presidential election the “safest” election in U.S. history, and U.S. Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press that there was no evidence of fraud that could change the outcome of the election.
However, Georgian Republicans have proposed adding a photo identification requirement when voting is absent, the ban on boxes, and possibly re-demanding an excuse to vote by mail, such as illness or travel to work on election day. elections.
Early supporters of the identification requirement include Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Republicans whom Trump has been relentlessly criticized for failing to support his fraud claims after losing to Georgia. A senior Raffensperger MP has said the identification requirement would increase public confidence and refute any future fraud claims.
The two runoffs of the U.S. Senate next month will be conducted under current legislation, which requires local election officials to verify the signatures of absentee ballots.
In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers have been drafting legislation to address what they say are problems with the 2020 election and postal voting in particular, although courts and election officials have found no evidence of widespread problems.
“We would like to harden it as soon as we can,” said Kim Ward, leader of the Pennsylvania Senate majority.
Republicans have a majority in both legislatures and their support was instrumental in a state law a year ago that extended postal voting to all registered voters. A bill that is being discussed would go so far as to repeal that law and force voters to declare an excuse to receive a ballot by mail.
Previous elections have shown that voters appreciate postal voting, regardless of their affiliation with the party. Republican ballot candidates did very well this year, even with a record 81.2 million voters voting for the Democrat in the presidential race.
In Michigan, Republicans occupied all seats in Congress and maintained control of the legislature despite Trump losing the state. Still, Republicans still held a legislative hearing in which Trump’s lawyers argued that there were widespread irregularities without explaining how they somehow affected only the presidential race, but not other contests.
“Just as we have seen many lawmakers make inadvisable decisions to hold hearings that ended up being more political theater than policy debates, so we can expect lawmakers to push this hyper-partisan agenda to restrict voting,” he said. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Democrat.
Benson said lawmakers should look, instead, for high turnout in the presidential election as a guide to improving what worked and then make changes that election officials called for, such as providing more time for secretaries to process ballots. Michigan does not allow this work to begin until the day before election day.
Lisa Schaefer, executive director of the Pennsylvania County Commissioners Association, said her organization would also like lawmakers to focus on reducing the tension facing local election officials.
“The more time we spend debating other issues, the less time we have to do something good with changes in the electoral code,” Schaefer said.
Democrats and voting rights groups have already begun to back down, saying Republicans should focus on protecting voters’ access to the polls and not feed on conspiracy theories launched by Trump. and his allies to undermine the Nov. 3 election.
They say identification requirements do little, but they have a high cost.
“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat who was recently approved to occupy the U.S. Senate seat by elected Vice President Kamala Harris. “It will certainly have the net effect of depriving many people of their rights without necessarily improving electoral security.”
Padilla supports the sending of votes to registered voters by mail.
Electoral fraud occurs, but studies have shown that it is extremely rare. Numerous guarantees are incorporated into the voting systems to ensure that only eligible voters vote. Election officials say that when fraud occurs, people are caught and prosecuted.
Not all Republicans want to add restrictions.
In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said his legislative priorities are to expand early voting locations, increase oversight of election vendors, add an online option to apply for absentee voting, and address confusion. on the boxes.
“Ohio has good things going for it, but we don’t want to rest,” said LaRose, who should get his changes through a Republican legislature.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said the pandemic forced the state to implement early voting, which proved popular with voters in the two major parties. The Republican said he believes state lawmakers are likely to create an early voting policy for later elections and has heard no opposition to the Republican-controlled legislature.
“It just makes voting easier,” he said.
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Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York. Associated Press writers Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Ben Nadler in Atlanta; and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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Associated Press voting rights coverage is partly supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for this content.