States Have Passed 9 Bills Making It Easier for Elections to Be Tampered With

As Democrats’ efforts to prevent voter suppression and election tampering bills have stalled in Congress, state lawmakers are still quietly passing bills to make it easier to intimidate and criminalize voters and election officials, a new report reveals.

In a Report released last week, the Brennan Center for Justice states that, in roughly the first four months of 2022, six states have passed nine election interference laws — laws that have opened the door for partisan actors to tamper with elections and election results. Such bills have been passed in Alabama, Arizona, Flor­ida, Geor­gia, Kentucky and Oklahoma; Georgia RepublicansFour of the bills are owed to you.

Three Georgia bills made it easier for partisans to be elected to or control the election boards in Miller and Montgomery counties. heavily favored Donald Trump2020 Presidential Election

Georgia and Florida lawmakersAlso passed a Particularly extreme bills that grant new powers to police forces, ostensibly to enforce election laws — though, in reality, these laws will likely disproportionately target and disenfranchise already marginalized voters.

The Georgia bill grants the Georgia Bureau of Investigation authority to launch a criminal investigation into alleged election fraud allegations without support from any other agency. Florida’s law, first proposed by far right Gov. Ron DeSantis created a 25-person electoral crimes office. Experts say it will suppress voters.

Oklahoma, Kentucky, Alabama and Kentucky have passed laws that criminalize the actions of election officials to ensure smooth elections. accepting private fundingTo assist with logistics such a ballot sorting or registering Native American voters to vote, they are now banned.

Arizona has also made it a felony offense to violate election regulations a new complex and racist law to verify a potential voters’ citizenship status.

The report shows that lawmakers have introduced at most 148 election interference bills in the 2022 legislative session. Federal lawmakers have mostly abandoned efforts to stop GOP lawmakers passing bills to skew the elections in their favor. Lawmakers in 39 states have also considered at least 393 voter suppression bills in this year’s legislative session.

However, legislators in 44 states and Washington, D.C., have introduced hundreds of bills that aim to expand voting access by 2022.

States have also passed voter suppression legislation this year. Arizona and Mississippi have created new proof of citizenship laws that would restrict voting access, while lawmakers in at least five other states have passed restrictive bills that have either been vetoed or are waiting for action from the states’ governors.