State and local officials took swift action in 2020 to ensure voters could access the polls with mail ballots and alternative voting options in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result was a safe, secure, fraud-free election with the highest voter turnout in 100 years.

But instead of lauding election officials for their work under difficult circumstances, state Republican politicians across the country chose to scapegoat them and pass laws limiting their ability to respond to changing circumstances while threatening them with significant criminal sanctions to keep them in line. In some cases, Republicans stripped their state election officials of their powers entirely.

These new laws were all inspired by former President Donald Trump s lie that the successful changes implemented by state and local election officials led to widespread election fraud in 2020. Republicans at all levels of government have refused to challenge the former president after his lies led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Instead, theyve taken up his fight.

There is absolutely no question that this is a reaction to the 2020 election and the Big Lie that somehow the election wasnt legitimate, said Lawrence Norden, an elections lawyer with the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit that backs voting rights. Theres no question about that.

The limitations on election officials, the new rules making it harder to vote, and the introduction of vague criminal penalties scaring people away from working the polls or running for a local election administration office are all a part of Trumps ongoing campaign to delegitimize elections across the country.

Its driving thousands into retirement, said Adrian Fontes, the former top elections official for Maricopa County, Arizona, and a Democrat now running for Arizona secretary of state. Its a less safe environment because of the mounting threats. Its had a significantly negative effect. And its because Donald Trump doesnt believe in democracy and neither do his supporters.

Making It Harder To Make It Easier To Vote