After state legislatures in swing states failed to ensure secure and constitutional elections in 2020, some Republican legislators are pushing for reform, Politico reported.
Arizona and Georgia — with Republican governors and state legislatures — have the best opportunity to outlaw mass mail-in voting, ballot harvesting, electronic voting, and other unconstitutional election procedures prone to widespread fraud.
Republicans in Georgia’s legislature have shown a desire to restrict the availability of absentee ballots and insecure ballot drop boxes, which allowed Democrats to harvest ballots without photo ID or verifiable chain of custody.
“As soon as we may constitutionally convene, we will reform our election laws to secure our electoral process by eliminating at-will absentee voting,” the Senate Republican caucus wrote in a press release. “We will require photo identification for absentee voting for cause, and we will crack down on ballot harvesting by outlawing drop boxes.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Republican House Speaker David Ralston, who allowed the state’s unconstitutional consent decree with Stacey Abrams, have indicated that they want the state to keep no-excuse mail-in voting.
State Sen. Larry Walker said Republicans can remain hopeful about a photo ID requirement for absentee ballots.
“A large percentage of my constituents have lost faith in the integrity of our election system,” he said. “So we’re going to try to address some things that we feel like can restore the public’s confidence in the system.”
Democrat governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina will stop the Republican-controlled state legislatures, which want to ensure that the next presidential election does not suffer from illegal election changes made under the guise of battling the coronavirus.
North Carolina voters approved a constitutional requirement for photo ID in 2018, but progressive activist judges have blocked its implementation. That provision could take effect prior to the 2022 elections.
Since Georgia Republicans lost both Senate seats on the Jan. 5 runoffs, many Republicans have noted that they will not win another statewide election if Democrats can harvest as many unverifiable ballots as they need.
“They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts of them so that we at least have a shot at winning,” said Alice O’Lenick, a Republican on the Gwinnett County, Ga., board of elections.
Even in Texas, which President Donald Trump won, the state’s Republican Party chair said “election integrity” must be the legislature’s number one priority in 2021.
Suspicious activity, such as drive-through voting and months-long early voting, was visible in left-wing counties that encompass Austin, Dallas, and Houston, with one woman facing up to 20 years in prison for election fraud and ballot harvesting.
The Texas GOP Chair said the legislature should focus on restricting the length of early voting.
Pennsylvania Republicans want mandatory photo ID and to repeal the state’s no-excuse mail-in voting law, but Gov. Tom Wolf can resist election integrity efforts until his term expires in 2022.
Arizona Republicans have introduced legislation that would lead to more automatic recounts.
Secretary of State and gubernatorial elections will be critical to reigning in unconstitutional election changes before the 2022 elections.
