(Headline USA) Democrats plan to “go on offense” to fight voting restrictions before the 2024 election cycle, according to a new report.
Blue state leaders want to use their momentum from the midterm elections to pass voting rights legislation, according to the New York Times, including policies that would create automatic voter registration systems, preregister teenagers to vote before they even turn 18-years-old and criminalizing election “misinformation.”
“I’ve asked them to think big,” Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said of his directions to fellow Democrats now that his party controls both chambers of the state’s legislature.
The most popular Democrat plan to expand voting access is an automatic voter registration, a system that registers anyone whose information is on file with a government agency. Twenty states already use such a system.
Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who won reelection in November, is one of the blue state leaders who wants to adopt this system, also saying that she hopes to make it easier for out-of-state students attending Michigan universities to register to vote.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson agreed, and said that her priority would be to pass sweeping new rules and penalties for those who spread “election misinformation.”
“The greatest threats to our democracy right now continue to be the intentional spread of misinformation and the threats and harassment of election officials that emerge from those efforts,” Benson said. “We owe it to voters on all sides to ensure we are seeking accountability for anyone who would intentionally try to essentially block someone from voting through misinformation.”
In Pennsylvania, Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would veto any effort by state Republicans to pass voting restrictions, saying he is “not willing to negotiate with people who are engaged in conspiracy theories and spewing nonsense about 2020.”
