Our View: The truth behind proposals to ‘ secure voting laws’

By any measure, the presidential election of 2020 was a resounding success. More Americans voted than ever — a full two- thirds of the electorate, the largest percentage turnout since 1900.

Despite the burden posed by those numbers, Homeland Security committees tasked with safeguarding the election called it “the most secure in American history.”

And reviews at the time by thenPresident Donald Trump’s attorney general and Republican and Democratic election officials from every state but Texas ( which declined to respond to a survey) found no evidence that fraud or irregularities played any part in the election of Joe Biden.

And all of this success unfolded amid the worst pandemic in 100 years.

Sounds a lot like a democracy that ain’t broke. So why have legislators across 28 states offered to fix our voting system with more than a hundred bills this year that would restrict access to the ballot box?

Three words: the Big Lie. Trump used his baseless claim that the election was stolen to gather his supporters at a rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, where he urged them to march on the U. S. Capitol, and the result was his impeachment trial for incitement of an insurrection.

Republican legislators for years have used so- called secure voting laws to suppress balloting by minorities, the poor, the elderly and college students who may not typically choose GOP candidates. The Big Lie opened legislative floodgates.

Because Trump repeated it like a mantra for months after the election, the confidence of Republican voters in the nation’s election system was shaken to its core — fertile ground for laws to crack down on ballot access.

The result?

A groundswell of legislative proposals to curtail mail voting, which was widely expanded because of COVID- 19; limit ways for people to register to vote; allow voter- roll purges that strip out legitimate voters; tighten voter ID requirements; and ban drop boxes for absentee ballots.

In Georgia, for example, where a record number of absentee ballots were cast in a state Biden narrowly won, proposed legislation would reverse the practice of allowing voting by mail without a specified excuse.

Among those favoring this is Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted pressure from Trump to alter voting results and defended the integrity of his state’s voting process.

“Georgia had a wildly successful and smooth election,” Raffensperger wrote for USA TODAY in November.

The moves by Republican legislators to restrict voter access come as the GOP — against nearly all objections — picked up a dozen seats in the House of Representatives and gained control of two state legislatures and a governorship. For his part, Trump received more votes than any Republican presidential nominee in history, incumbent or otherwise. It’s just that Biden received 7 million more votes.

Yet Trump so pervasively insinuated his Big Lie on social media, at rallies and on television that by January, 76% of Republicans were convinced he had been cheated of victory.

The good news is that the participatory successes of November have created momentum for making it even easier for citizens to vote.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than 400 new or carriedover bills in 35 states would, among other things, expand mail and early inperson voting; ensure drop boxes for absentee ballots; allow automatic voter registration in circumstances such as when people interact with a state Department of Motor Vehicles; and reform ways for voters to correct technical mistakes on mail ballots.

And more could be done to instill even greater confidence in the process. The universal implementation of paper balloting would guard against computer error. Comprehensive post- election audits could be more broadly implemented, along with greater opportunities for citizens to observe ballot counting in person or through livestreaming. Reforms to the way mail- in ballots are counted could provide more accurate election night results.

Most important, truth needs to prevail over the Big Lie. The lesson of the Nov. 3 election is that the world’s oldest democracy has the potential for an even brighter future.