New Report Outlines Widespread Election Subversion Across the U.S.

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Voting booths at Hermosa Beach City Hall during California Primary

It’s one of the most anti-democratic trends hiding in plain sight.

Eleven states have adopted new laws that could undermine how elections are run, according to a report from The Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan watchdog. Other states are in the process of drafting similar laws.

More from the report:

So far this session, more than 180 bills shifting election authority have been introduced. These new laws have taken a variety of forms. Some give partisan actors more power to shape and control election outcomes, or limit the autonomy of local election officials. Some give partisan poll watchers the ability to intimidate and harass voters. Others criminalize election workers for simply doing their jobs. The most concerning bills would enable partisan state legislatures to overturn election results.

The Voting Rights Lab spotlights several troubling new laws:

The Voting Rights Lab says the slate of new laws threatening America’s elections are “fueled by rampant disinformation campaigns” associated with the results of the 2020 presidential election, a thinly-veiled reference to Donald Trump’s persistent and false claims that the Oval Office was stolen from him. The report adds “at least seven states have initiated or are trying to initiate reviews of the 2020 election despite a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.” Those states are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

“Enough states are starting to move these policies that we are, in fact, at a tipping point,” Megan Lewis, the executive director of the Voting Rights Lab, told CNN. “These lawmakers need to stop these efforts or we really run the risk of eroding the fabric of our democracy.”