亚特兰大-共和党领导的几个州的立法者一直在寻求对州和地方施加更多的权力选举民主党人警告说，新的权力可能会在未来的选举中被用来针对左倾的县。
这些举措从要求选举相关诉讼的法庭和解获得立法批准，到为接管地方选举办公室创造条件。
在北卡罗来纳州，一项正在国会审议的共和党提案将改变州和县选举委员会的组成，并赋予立法者任命委员会成员的唯一权力。
德克萨斯州的共和党议员最近批准了一项立法，不仅取消了民主党大本营哈里斯县(包括休斯顿)的最高选举官员，还允许该州的首席选举官员——国务卿——接管该县的选举办公室。部长由州长任命，由参议院确认，两者现在都在共和党手中。
选举观察员说，公众信任选举不受党派操纵是至关重要的，他们说，他们担心立法者为了政治利益决定维护他们的新权力。
“州政府有办法干预并帮助地方选举官员，”爱达荷州前地方选举官员大卫·勒文说，他现在是德国马歇尔基金会“保障民主联盟”的高级研究员。“相反，我们看到一些州正在制定法律，这些法律可能会对美国选举的进行提出新的挑战。”
自2020年总统大选以来，受前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)关于普遍欺诈的虚假指控的推动，共和党立法机构扩大选举权力的尝试急剧增加。共和党议员将这些举措描述为旨在改善选举的必要监督，而民主党人则批评它们是可以用来干涉投票或计票的权力争夺。
在州或地方一级监督选举的办公室主要由赢得党派选举的人或在涉及党派官员的过程中被任命的人担任。但是那些在职的人通常都努力保持无党派的方式来进行选举。自2020年总统大选以来，这些职位中有一些已经被拒绝接受选举结果的人占据，这让人怀疑他们将如何管理自己的办公室。
共和党议员在此期间通过的一些立法引发了对党派干预的更多担忧。根据投票权实验室(Voting Rights Lab)收集的数据，13个主要由共和党控制的州的立法者已经通过了约15项法案，这些法案要么扩大了立法者对选举的权力，要么采取了一些行动来干涉地方选举管理人员。投票权实验室跟踪各州与投票相关的立法，并倡导扩大选民参与。
在德克萨斯州，共和党议员刚刚通过并由共和党州长格雷格·阿博特(Greg Abbott)签署成为法律的法律将取消民主党占主导地位的哈里斯县的选举管理办公室，该县包括休斯顿，有200多万选民。这些法律还提供了一种方式，让州政府在未来对县选举办公室进行监督。
德克萨斯州共和党急于改变美国第三大县的选举，该县有大量西班牙裔和黑人选民，此前11月的选举出现了一些有限的问题，包括纸质选票短缺和一些投票站开放较晚。此前的失误也使哈里斯县选举受到共和党人的审查，包括2022年初选当天没有计算在内的1万张邮件选票。
“这是关于表现，而不是政治，”休斯顿共和党参议员保罗·贝当古(Paul Bettencourt)说。
哈里斯县的领导人指责共和党人利用这些问题作为借口，在一个越来越倾向于民主党的地方加强对选举的控制。预计会有一场诉讼。
在2012年总统竞选中，该县实际上已经分裂。到2020年，民主党乔·拜登以两位数的优势轻松拿下哈里斯县。
“这是一个很大的传奇，该州决定他们不喜欢哈里斯县居民的投票方式，所以他们将控制哈里斯县的选举机构，”哈里斯县法官Lina Hidalgo说，她是一名民主党人，也是该县的最高民选官员。
在共和党控制立法机构的北卡罗来纳州，立法者正在再次试图从民主党州长手中夺走决定选举委员会成员的权力。此前几年，共和党人受到法院和选民的阻挠，他们反对2018年的宪法修正案。
现在拥有否决权的共和党人设想一个八人的州选举委员会，可能由民主党和共和党人数相等的人组成，由两党的立法领导人任命。它将取代目前的五人模式，由民主党州长罗伊·库珀(Roy Cooper)根据两党提供的候选人名单任命。根据目前的州法律，来自同一个政党的董事会成员不得超过三名。
共和党人指出，民主党控制的董事会和一个工会附属团体在新冠肺炎疫情期间就邮件投票截止日期达成的法律和解证明了党派恶作剧。
“这些行动是由一个绕过立法程序的委员会促成的，导致北卡罗莱纳人对选举过程失去信任，”参议院领袖、共和党人菲尔·伯杰(Phil Berger)说。“现在，我们将采取必要措施，开始重建这种信任。”
上周参议院通过的选举法案也将把县选举委员会的人数从五人减少到四人。两党的立法领导人将任命成员，而不是目前的模式，即州长只有一个任命，州选举委员会填补其余的席位。民主党人认为这一变化是陷入僵局的原因。
“这将导致未经证实的选举结果、不确定性和无休止的诉讼，”少数党领袖、民主党人丹·布鲁(Dan Blue)说。
在共和党控制的立法机构于2021年通过一项法案，授权州选举委员会干预县选举办公室并罢免地方选举官员后，对接管的担忧并没有在佐治亚州发生。在共和党议员触发审查条款后，该委员会对富尔顿县进行了调查，富尔顿县包括亚特兰大的大部分地区，历史上曾有过选举问题。
在审查发现这个高度民主的县表现出相当大的进步后，委员会最近决定不接管其选举办公室。该委员会的共和党人马特·马什伯恩(Matt Mashburn)表示，当他们暗示该法律将被用来干预地方选举时，“那些会说话的人是错误的”。
“我认为这个过程非常好，非常彻底，每个人都从容不迫，”他说。
在威斯康星州，州选举委员们计划在下周开会，考虑该州无党派选举管理人梅根·沃尔夫(Meagan Wolfe)是否应该连任。这是美国相对较少的无党派选举管理的例子之一。
委员们正在权衡沃尔夫在共和党领导的参议院获得确认的可能性，尽管该州进行了多次审查，确认没有证据表明该州2020年的选举存在广泛的欺诈或不法行为，但一些议员承诺不支持她。近年来，该州的共和党人做出了各种努力来削弱两党选举委员会，该委员会的民主党人和共和党人人数相等。
前共和党州参议员、县选举官员凯西·伯尼尔(Kathy Bernier)公开反对普遍欺诈的虚假指控，她说委员们面临着艰难的投票。
“共和党和民主党目前的困难是，他们不相信任何无党派人士，”她说。“因此，无论他们选择谁，其中一方或另一方都可能会有一两次抱怨。”
GOP state legislatures seek greater control over state and local election offices
ATLANTA -- Lawmakers in several Republican-led states have been looking to exert more authority over state and local election offices, claiming new powers that Democrats warn could be used to target left-leaning counties in future elections.
The moves range from requiring legislative approval of court settlements in election-related lawsuits to creating paths for taking over local election offices.
In North Carolina, a Republican proposal working its way through the General Assembly would change the composition of state and county election boards and give lawmakers sole authority to appoint board members.
Republican lawmakers in Texas recently approved legislation that not only eliminates the top election official in the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, which includes Houston, but also permits the state’s chief election official — the secretary of state — to take over the county’s election office. The secretary is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, both now in Republican hands.
Election observers say it’s imperative for public trust that elections remain free of partisan manipulation and they say they worry about lawmakers deciding to assert their new powers for political gain.
“There are ways that states can intervene and help local election officials,” said David Levine, a former local election official in Idaho who is now a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy. “Instead, we are seeing states that are enacting laws that could introduce new challenges to the conduct of U.S. elections.”
Attempts by Republican legislatures to expand their power over how elections are run have soared since the 2020 presidential election, spurred by former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud. Republican lawmakers characterize the moves as necessary oversight aimed at improving elections, while Democrats criticize them as power grabs that could be used to interfere in voting or ballot counting.
The offices that oversee elections at the state or local level are primarily filled by people who win partisan elections or are appointed in a process that involves partisan officials. But those in the jobs have typically worked to maintain a nonpartisan approach to running elections. Since the 2020 presidential election, a few of these positions have been taken by people who rejected the results, raising doubts about how they will run their office.
Some of the legislation passed during that time by Republican lawmakers has led to additional concerns about partisan interference. Lawmakers in 13 mostly GOP-controlled states have passed an estimated 15 bills that either expanded lawmakers' authority over elections or took some action to interfere with local election administrators, according to data collected by the Voting Rights Lab, which tracks voting-related legislation in the states and advocates for expanded voter access.
In Texas, laws just passed by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott will abolish the elections administrator’s office in heavily Democratic Harris County, which includes Houston and has more than 2 million voters. The laws also provide a way for the state to take oversight of the county’s election office in the future.
The rush by the Texas GOP to shake up elections in the nation’s third-largest county — and one with large numbers of Hispanic and Black voters — followed limited problems in November’s elections that included a shortage of paper ballots and some polling locations opening late. Previous stumbles also have put Harris County elections under scrutiny by Republicans, including 10,000 mail ballots that weren’t counted the day of the 2022 primary.
“This is about performance, not politics,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican.
Leaders in Harris County have accused Republicans of using the issues as an excuse to take greater control of elections in a place that is increasingly tilting toward Democrats. A lawsuit is expected.
The county was virtually split in the 2012 presidential race. By 2020, Democrat Joe Biden easily won Harris County by double digits.
“This has been a big saga of the state deciding that they don’t like the way Harris County residents vote, so instead they’re going to take control of the Harris County elections apparatus,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat and the county’s top elected official.
In North Carolina, where Republicans control the legislature, lawmakers are making another attempt to take power away from the governor, a Democrat, in deciding who serves on election boards. The moves come after Republicans were thwarted in previous years by the courts and by voters, who opposed a 2018 constitutional amendment.
Republicans, who now hold veto-proof majorities, envision an eight-person State Board of Elections that likely would be comprised of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, appointed by legislative leaders of both political parties. It would replace the current five-person model, with appointees of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper based on lists of candidates provided by the two parties. Under current state law, no more than three members of the board can be of the same political party.
Republicans have pointed to a legal settlement reached over mail ballot deadlines during the COVID-19 pandemic between the Democratic-controlled board and a union-affiliated group as proof of partisan mischief.
“Those actions were enabled by a board that circumvented the legislative process and caused North Carolinians to lose trust in the election process,” said Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican. “Now we will take the necessary steps to begin rebuilding that trust.”
The elections bill, which passed the Senate this past week, also would reduce the size of county election boards from five members to four. Legislative leaders of both parties would appoint the members, rather than the current model in which the governor has one appointment and the State Board of Elections fills the rest of the seats. Democrats see the change as a recipe for stalemate.
“This is going to result in uncertified election results, uncertainty and endless litigation,” said Minority Leader Dan Blue, a Democrat.
Fears of a takeover did not come to pass in Georgia after the GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill in 2021 that gave the State Election Board the power to intervene in county election offices and remove local election officials. After its review clause was triggered by Republican lawmakers, the board launched an examination of Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta and has had a history of election troubles.
After the review found the heavily Democratic county had shown considerable improvement, the board recently decided against taking over its election office. Matt Mashburn, a Republican appointee to the board, said the “talking heads were wrong” when they suggested the law would be used to meddle in local elections.
“I think the process has been very good and thorough, and everybody took their time,” he said.
In Wisconsin, state election commissioners are scheduled to meet this coming week to consider whether Meagan Wolfe, the state’s nonpartisan election administrator, should serve another term. It's one of the relatively few examples of nonpartisan election administration in the United States.
Commissioners are weighing the chances of Wolfe surviving confirmation in the Republican-led Senate, where some lawmakers have pledged not to support her despite numerous reviews in the state affirming there was no evidence of widespread fraud or wrongdoing with the state’s elections in 2020. Republicans in the state have made various efforts in recent years to weaken the bipartisan election commission, which has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans.
Kathy Bernier, a former Republican state senator and county election official who has spoken out against false claims of widespread fraud, said commissioners face a tough vote.
“The difficulty with both Republicans and Democrats right now is they don’t trust anyone as nonpartisan," she said. "So whoever they pick, one side or the other is probably going to have a complaint or two.”
