HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Republican lawmakers who have spread election conspiracy theories and falsely claim that the 2020 presidential results are rigged, overseeing the legislative committee’s power to set election policy in two major political warring states.
Divided governments in Pennsylvania and Arizona mean that any voting restrictions proposed by GOP legislators will fail. Even so, the high-profile appointment provides a platform for lawmakers to cast doubt on the integrity of elections in states that will be crucial in choosing the next president in 2024.
Give the plum position to the members of parliament who have repeatedly conspired and spread pieces of false information against the evidence of more than two years showing that there was no problem or widespread fraud in the last presidential election. It would also appear to run counter to the message sent in November’s midterm elections, when voters rejected candidates running for the top office in presidential battleground states.
At the same time, many mainstream Republicans are trying to get past the lies told by former President Donald Trump and his allies about losing President Joe Biden.
“It’s an issue that many Americans and many Pennsylvanians are tired of seeing litigated and re-litigated over and over,” said Pennsylvania state Sen. Amanda Cappalletti, the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee that handles Election rules. “I think everything is ready to move forward, and we see from audit after audit that our elections are safe, they are fair and the people’s votes are counted.”
Democratic governors and legislative victories last fall will reduce the influence of Republicans taking steps or pushing rhetoric to cancel the 2020 elections.
But in Arizona and Pennsylvania, the two lawmakers who invalidated that election — not to mention other elections since then — will hold positions of influence as the majority seats on legislative committees that oversee election laws.
In Arizona, Republican Senator Wendy Rogers took over the Senate Elections Committee after being appointed by her ally, Senate President Warren Petersen. He is one of two lawmakers who signed the subpoena that led to the much-derided Senate Republican audit of the 2020 election.
Numerous reviews and audits in the six battleground states where Trump denied his defeat, as well as dozens of judicial denials and repeated warnings from officials in his own administration, confirm that the 2020 presidential results are accurate. No amount of fraud or widespread manipulation of voting machines will alter the results.
Legislative appointments in Pennsylvania and Arizona highlight the divide between the two major parties over election laws. Already this year, the Democratic-controlled legislature is moving to expand access to voting and raise penalties to intimidate voters and election workers, while many Republican-led states are aiming to limit restrictions further, a trend that accelerated after Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election. .
Rogers, who gained a national following for spreading conspiracy theories and election questions, has faced repeated ethics charges for inflammatory rhetoric, support for white supremacy and conspiracy-filled social media posts.
He will now be the main gatekeeper for elections and bill votes in Arizona, where electoral change is a top priority for some Republican lawmakers. Some want to eliminate voting by mail and the early voting option used by more than 80% of the state’s voters.
They have scheduled a committee meeting on Monday to consider a bill that would ban unmonitored drop-off boxes, ban ballots or ballots and impose what voting rights advocates say are additional burdens for early voting.
In Pennsylvania, Republican Senator Cris Dush became chairman of the Senate State Government Committee after pushing to block the state’s electoral votes from going to Biden in 2020. Dush also created an election investigation that he hopes will use Arizona-style audits as a model.
He was appointed by the Senate’s ranking Republican, President Pro Tem Kim Ward, whose office explained Dush’s appointment only by saying that seniority plays a role and that members have priority requests.
In the first week of this year’s session, Dush has implemented measures to expand voter identification requirements and add a layer of post-election audits. Both proposed constitutional amendments designed to bypass the governor’s veto by going to voters for approval.
Dush said he also plans to introduce legislation to require more security measures for drop-off boxes and ballots.
“I will promise the people of Pennsylvania: The things that I do here as the head of the State Government, will be things that will be done fairly and impartially,” Dush said in an interview. “You know, we just have to make sure that we can ensure the integrity of the vote and that people are not disenfranchised.”
Arizona and Pennsylvania have newly elected Democratic governors who are likely to veto hardline GOP bills that Democrats oppose.
Still, Democrats, county election officials and voting rights advocates across the state want changes to election laws that, with Dush and Rogers on board, they may never see.
Alex Gulotta, Arizona director for the voting rights group All Voting is Local, said he expects the Legislature to pass many “bad election bills.” He said moderate Republican lawmakers who might vote for problematic measures under a current Republican governor may allow them to pass knowing Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs will veto them.
“It’s performative,” Gulotta said. “This is not substantive.”
The question, he said, is whether Rogers and other Arizona lawmakers can work together on a consensus-building “small correction.” That, he said, would take “real statesmanship.”
Liz Avore, senior counsel at the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said the organization expects another busy period of legislation related to voting and elections before the 2024 presidential election, even if candidates who repeatedly lied to Trump about the stolen 2020 election lost. bid for the governor. , secretaries of state and attorneys general in the major battleground states.
Democratic- and Republican-led states often move in opposite directions, but some bipartisan consensus has emerged on certain aspects of election law, such as restoring voting rights to felons and expanding early voting, Avore said.
Republican proposals, such as expanding voter identification requirements, are popular and have majority support, as do some Democratic proposals to expand access, said Christopher Borick, a professor of political science and polling at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
But to succeed with voters, Republicans need to remember the lessons of 2022. Denying fair election results, he said, “is a loser for the Republican Party. Jump up.”
Cooper reported from Phoenix.