What is the GOP’s position?
After claiming for months that the 2020 presidential election was marred by widespread fraud, mainstream Republicans are now using the term “irregularities.” By this, they mean the expansion of mail-in balloting, early voting, and a host of other procedural measures enacted by courts, state officials, and governors in response to the risk of voting in person during the pandemic. These rule changes, GOP officials say, usurped the authority of state legislatures to set election rules. As former Vice President Mike Pence put it: “Many of the most troubling voting irregularities took place in states that set aside laws enacted by state legislatures in favor of sweeping changes ordered by governors, secretaries of state, and courts.” In the wake of expanded access to the ballot, President Biden became the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to amass more than 80 million votes, and a record 159 million people voted in the 2020 election. It was the highest turnout—67 percent of registered voters—since 1900.