As state legislatures across the country begin their 2022 legislative session, self-serving GOP politicians are already lining up anti-voter bills to silence the voice and vote of the people. These bills will limit access to the ballot box and make it easier for partisan politicians to sabotage our elections by only counting the votes they want to.
In 2021, over 440 restrictive voting bills were introduced in 49 states, with 34 of those becoming law in 19 states, including in Texas, where Republicans passed a bill that targets urban areas and restricts voters’ options, including imposing new hurdles on mail-in ballots, banning drive up ballot drop offs, and empowering partisan poll watchers; and Georgia, which passed an anti-voter law that allows partisan politicians to remove local election officials from their posts. To counter these laws, and the new bills being proposed in 2022, the U.S. Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote Act, a commonsense anti-corruption and voting rights bill that combines ideas from Democrats and Republicans that ensures every American has the freedom to make their voices heard in our elections, ends dark money, stops partisan gerrymandering, and protects our elections from sabotage, making certain that voters are safe from intimidation and trusted local officials are able to count every vote.
With GOP politicians doing everything they can to restrict the freedom to vote and destabilize our democracy, the Senate must do whatever it takes to get this bill across the finish line.
See below for examples of extremist anti-voter measures that GOP politicians are pushing for this year:
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New Hampshire GOP politicians introduced a bill that would allow any registered voter to bring a lawsuit to remove trusted local election officials, making it easier for partisan politicians to sabotage New Hampshire elections and overturn election results.
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Self-serving Republicans in Wisconsin are trying to dissolve the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and put oversight of Wisconsin elections in the hands of the Secretary of State, giving control to a partisan politician.
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Republicans in Utah are pushing a new ballot initiative to eliminate accessible methods of voting that aims to end the state’s long-standing use of mail-in balloting, limiting voters’ options to in-person polling places only. If passed, they would end early voting and severely restrict absentee voting. The proposal will cost the state over $36 million in the first year and over $19 million per year after that.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to create a new state agency with over 50 employees that would investigate alleged election law violations, even though there were only 37 election law violations in Florida from 2003-2018. For context, there are only 18 officers investigating homicides in Tampa Bay, where there were 49 homicides in the last year. The new agency would cost Florida taxpayers $6 million to investigate a nearly nonexistent issue in a cynical effort to undermine faith in elections.
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