By Joe Miller
This week: MAGA Republicans Are Using Election Lies To Change Election Law & Undermine Investigations
Election deniers have spent the past week fighting investigations into Trump and his MAGA allies and working to make it more difficult to vote in key states. In Georgia, as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis considers “imminent” charges against the former President, MAGA state legislators are fielding proposals to undermine future investigations by district attorneys. Georgia Republicans have introduced legislation that would both create a state panel overseeing district attorneys like Willis and make it easier to recall local prosecutors. Legal experts are suggesting that indictments in Fulton County could have a “ripple effect” on the Justice Department’s special counsel probe and other investigations circling Trump.
In North Carolina, the state Supreme Court’s new conservative majority will re-hear two major voting rights cases decided just two months ago. Though the court initially struck down a gerrymandered map of State Senate districts and nullified racially discriminatory voter ID restrictions, a different court could quickly enable a MAGA supermajority in the legislature and curtail ballot access. The state Supreme Court will also consider rolling back voting rights for thousands of formerly incarcerated voters who only recently became re-enfranchised ahead of the midterm elections.
In Florida, hundreds of thousands of voters had their mail-in ballot status canceled last week as part of a law championed by Governor Ron DeSantis forcing all absentee ballot users—nearly ⅓ of the Florida electorate—to re-apply and follow new stringent ID requirements, with fewer ballot boxes available, in order to vote by mail. Even as these new restrictions come into force, MAGA state lawmakers are working to allow Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration to prosecute charges of so-called election fraud without having to engage first with local prosecutors. Meanwhile, DeSantis himself continues to follow an authoritarian playbook by floating a bill that would make it easier to sue news outlets.
Elsewhere, fellow MAGA Republicans are also working to suppress voters:
In Texas, election denier Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a new election in Houston-based Harris County last week — without providing evidence to back his claims of fraud and MAGA disenfranchisement.
In Mississippi, MAGA lawmakers voted to create a separate court system and expanded police force, appointed completely by white state officials, within the Black-supermajority city of Jackson.
The Pennsylvania GOP has been scheduling a series of statewide events headlined by far-right activists, including a QAnon-aligned ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer who was at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
And finally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ first voter fraud case, accusing a formerly incarcerated voter of casting a ballot illegally, ended with a split verdict last night. Following in his footsteps, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are considering a proposal to force voters with felony convictions to pay off fines and court fees prior to voting.
