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There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Colorado presented during a day-long, legislative hearing held by Republicans Tuesday on the states election integrity. But there was plenty of bipartisan praise for Colorados voting systems and processes.

We are the gold standard for voting in our country, said El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman, a Republican. Everybody wants to be like Colorado.

The Legislative Audit Committee hearing, held at the Colorado Capitol with some lawmakers participating virtually because of the pandemic, was initiated by Republican members of the state House, namely Rep. Lori Saine, the panels GOP chairwoman. It happened under the backdrop of persisting, baseless claims from President Donald Trump about mass voter fraud that cost him reelection.

Saine, who lives in Firestone, told The Colorado Sun before the meeting that she called for it after hearing concerns from constituents. Youve got certain states with election integrity issues, she said last week. But did it happen here in Colorado? Its really kind of on us to help answer that question. Did it happen here? Did we have widespread fraud?

The resounding answer from county clerks, Republican former Secretary of States Scott Gessler and Wayne Williams, and even Jenna Ellis, a top attorney for Trump, was no.

Williams said there are instances of fraud in every election, but not to the level where it would affect congressional or statewide races.

We do have good, redundant systems, Gessler said.

Ellis, a Coloradan who has been leading Trumps floundering efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the his favor, said while she didnt have evidence of widespread wrongdoing in Colorado, there was enough suspicion that the legislature should investigate.

Ellis pressed the Legislative Audit Committee to look into Colorado counties use of software from Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. She offered no evidence for why, other than pointing to debunked claims about problems with Dominions systems in other states.

Ellis also raised the unfounded suspicion of impropriety in Jefferson County because of its shift from an election battleground to a Democratic-learning area of the state, and because of its use of Dominion products. Jefferson County, like many Denver-are counties, has shifted to the left over the past eight years.

We dont know if its happened in Colorado, Ellis said of widespread fraud. Wouldnt you like to find out?

RELATED: Jenna Ellis, President Trumps lawyer, was fired from Weld County DAs office for mistakes, records show

Democrats on the committee rejected Ellis premise, saying theres no need to look into Colorados election integrity because theres no proof that anything is wrong. Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat who sits on the audit committee, said she was outraged that taxpayer money was being used for Tuesdays hearing. She said questions about the states election systems amounted to a nothingburger.

Theres no evidence, Fields said during fiery remarks directed at Ellis.

Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat and vice chair of the audit committee, echoed that sentiment.

Colorado runs some of the most secure elections in the country, she said. Were proud to showcase a number of the processes and tools we use that states around the country look to for best practices.

County clerks, meanwhile, pointed out that they are constantly looking for fraud and malfeasance and have not found anything substantial. Each Colorado election is audited to ensure there are no abnormalities or voter impropriety. On the rare occasion allegations surface, they are investigated by local elections officials and prosecutors. There are also automatic checks and balances, including voter-signature verification and a paper trail for every vote cast.

We have bipartisan teams test our voting machines before each election and we have bipartisan teams audit our voting machines after each election, said George Stern, Jefferson Countys Democratic clerk and recorder. Our elections are run by hundreds of bipartisan judges and are observed by hundreds of bipartisan watchers.

Stern resoundingly rejected the assertion of wrongdoing in Jefferson County, pointing to inaccuracies in Ellis testimony about voter registration in his county decreasing over the past six years when it has steadily gone up.

As for Dominion Voting Systems, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, submitted written testimony as part of the hearing defending the companys efficacy and security. She said that the state runs checks to make sure Dominion systems are running appropriately.

Dominion software has been used broadly in Colorado since 2015, Griswold wrote. Dominion hardware and software, under a previous set of contracts, was used by several Colorado counties as far back as the 1990s. Importantly, no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented against Dominion concerning its use and performance in this election or any other.

Griswold did not appear in person at the hearing. We were given the option of participating in writing, and chose to do so, Betsy Hart, a spokeswoman for Griswold, said in a statement. We hope our written testimony helps dispel election misinformation by underlining the facts.

Merlin Klotz, Douglas Countys Republican clerk and recorder, said he thinks Dominion has generally performed very well in Colorado.

Despite the overall praise for Colorados election systems, Pamela Anderson, who leads the Colorado County Clerks Association, said there is always room for improvement. She outlined several legislative measures that could make Colorados already-strong voting systems and processes even better, including unspecified fixes to technical aspects of state voting law and better funding for county clerks and recorders.

Republicans on the audit committee still sought a state audit of the Colorado Secretary of States Office despite the overwhelming testimony about whats working when it comes to the states elections. They were rebuffed, however, by Democrats on the panel, who said eight hours of testimony showed there is no need.

The facts and the evidence do not lead us into OKing a fishing expedition into the Secretary of States Office, said Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, an Arvada Democrat.

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Saine, the audit committees chair who is term limited and wont be returning to the legislature when it reconvenes next month, urged the public to reach out to their state representatives and senators about ways to improve Colorados election processes.

I think we identified a number of things we can improve, said Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican. At the same time, however, Lundeen said hes confident that the election was spot on in his El Paso County and that the contest generally went off without a hitch across the state.

The legislature returns for its 2021 lawmaking term on Jan. 13.

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8-hour, Republican-led hearing on Colorado's election integrity ends without of evidence widespread fraud - The Colorado Sun

With one of our political parties trying to overturn the results of a free and fair election, we are way farther down that road now than we were before the election, or a year ago, she told me. Republicans have been going down that road all through Trumps term, but this is the parting gift, which is more extreme than what has happened before.

Adam Serwer: If you didnt vote for Trump, your vote is fraudulent

Republicans widespread enlistment in Trumps efforts follows years in which officials have advanced hundreds of state-level measures making it more difficult to vote; engaged in extraordinary legislative maneuvering to deny former President Barack Obama the opportunity to fill a vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat; and have either looked the other way or abetted Trump in a series of actions shredding democratic norms, including attempting to weaponize the Postal Service, tilt the results of the census, and pressure the Justice Department to investigate his opponents.

Polling has consistently found that the majority of Republican voters believe, without evidence, that the election was stolen. One academic study, based on a national survey conducted early this year, found that a stunningly large share of self-identified Republicans endorsed antidemocratic propositions such as The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it. GOP behavior during this postelection period suggests that these are not abstract sentiments: The secretaries of state in Georgia and Arizona, who have rejected Trumps claims of fraud, have faced death threats, and a mob of armed protesters gathered last weekend outside the home of Michigans secretary of state, whos also stood by her states results.

Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertarian Niskanen Center, told me he sees a fateful watershed in the partys postelection deference to Trump. Once the Republican Party got into this idea that voter suppression was the way to go, once it stopped believing it was the majority partyand the entire American project was at stake, and Democrats would ruin the country if they hold powerthen anything would be permitted, including antidemocratic means, said Kabaservice, who is also the author of Rule and Ruin, a history of moderate Republicans. This was all before Trump came on the scene, so Trump simply furthered what was there.

The Republican Party, without acknowledging or realizing it, has become an antidemocratic force, he added.

Some key local Republican officials have conspicuously resisted Trumps pressure, including Doug Ducey and Brian Kemp, the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia, respectively. In Michigan, a young GOP member of the states canvassing board voted to uphold the states results recording a decisive Biden win there. And many Republican-appointed federal judges, as well as some elected at the state level, have joined in rejecting Trump lawyers unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud.

Read the original here:
The GOP's Antidemocratic Bid to Overturn the Election - The Atlantic

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On November 30, Georgias Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, held a press conference to refute the fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation spread by Trump supporters that the election was rigged.

But at the same time, Raffensperger announced he was opening an investigation into four progressive voter registration groups who he claimed sought to register ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters.

Establishment Georgia Republicans like Raffensperger have been widely lauded in the media for standing up to President Donald Trumps baseless election claims. But with far less fanfare, theyve continued to perpetuate a widely discredited narrative of voter fraud in order to build support for new restrictions on voting that will make it harder for Georgiansparticularly in Democratic-leaning demographicsto cast ballots in future elections.

With control of the Senate hanging on Georgias two runoff elections on January 5, Trumps actions are already making voting more difficult in the state, with key early voting sites closing as the recounts demanded by the Trump campaign have stretched election officials thin. But the narrative being pushed by Raffensperger and other state leaders could have much longer-lasting implications, spurring new restrictions that could impede voting in the suddenly competitive state for years to come.

One of the groups Raffensperger is investigating is the New Georgia Project, which was founded by Stacey Abrams in 2013 to register young people and voters of color in the state and was chaired by Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock until February. The group, Raffensperger said on November 30, sent voter registration applications to New York City and would be held responsible if it encouraged illegal voting.

Ns Ufot, the CEO of the New Georgia Project, told me the accusation was ridiculous and not true. She said the group had sent postcards to volunteers, including in New York City, who wanted to send letters to eligible Georgia voters encouraging them to register and turn out on January 5. Their allegation is we are trying to register voters out of state, which we are not, she said. Its flimsy as helltheir evidence is thinner than a single strand of hair.

A few days later, Raffsenperger held another press conference, where he held up postcards that had been sent by the group to his son who passed away two years ago, encouraging him to register to vote. We have proof in our own home, he said.

Ufot said the mailing had been sent to Raffsenpergers son based on faulty data in Georgias voter file or other databases used to find unregistered voters and was not a nefarious attempt to register dead people to vote. Nonetheless, Trump supporters seized on the investigations as evidence that the voter fraud they claimed existed was now real. Fox News called it a formal acknowledgement that there was some impropriety in the voting process.

When you hear reports like that of whats happening in Georgia, it makes your blood boil, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told the network. This sounds like fraudPeople need to be arrested here.

It shakes peoples faith in the process, Ufot said of the allegations against her group. Hes looking for ways to shrink the electorate and construct additional hurdles that people have to clear to participate.

While Raffsenperger has defended the integrity of Georgias elections system, he and Gov. Brian Kemp have called for voter ID requirements to be extended to mail ballots.Under the proposal, voters would have to include a copy of a government-issued identification along with their mail-in ballotsan extra procedural hurdle than undermines the purpose of mail voting, particularly for people with mobility issues or a lack of access to printers and copiers. Republicans specifically declined to require identification for mail voting in 2005, when they believed more Republicans than Democrats would vote by mail. Voters casting their ballots in person must show a photo ID, and we should consider applying that same standard to mail-in balloting, Kemp said last week.

Leaders in the Republican-controlled state legislature have gone much further, vowing to take up sweeping restrictions on mail voting when they convene in a new session next year after the runoff. These measures wouldmake mail voting available only to people with a valid reason, ban drop boxes for mail voting, and make it easier to reject mail ballots.

Though Republicans have long touted mail voting in Georgia, this year Democratsand Black voters in particularvoted by mail at much higher rates than GOP voters after Trump attacked the process. Georgia House Speaker David Ralston predicted in the spring that mail voting will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.

There was no evidence of fraudulent mail voting in Georgia or any other state in 2020, but the mere perception of such fraud among Trump supporters is now enough to justify new restrictions on voting. The Georgia Senate Republicans have heard the calls of millions of Georgians who have raised deep and heartfelt concerns that state law has been violated and our elections process abused in our November 3, 2020 elections, the state senate GOP caucus said in astatement on Tuesday. We will fix this. Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchsargued that voter ID requirements were needed for mail ballots to prevent candidates from claiming the election was rigged.

We have a Republican Party that is singularly focused on disinformation warfare around nonexistent voter fraud, Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of the voting rights group Fair Fight and Abrams 2018 gubernatorial campaign manager, told me. We can look at state after state in the country where those disinformation narratives are directly connected to restrictions on the right to vote.

Theres a long history of this tactic in Georgia. In 2014, when he was secretary of state, Kemp first opened an investigation into voter registration drives by the New Georgia Project, which Abrams was overseeing at the time. Were just not going to put up with fraud, Kemp said. The group submitted 85,000 voter registration applications that year, and roughly 50.06 percent of the totalwere deemed to be forgeries submitted by independent contractors.(Under Georgia law, the New Georgia Project was required to submit all applications it received, regardless of whether they were legitimate.) Kemps own investigator concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing, and no one was charged. Yet Kemp continued to raise the specter of fraud to erect new barriers to voting, such as removing voters from the rolls, blocking registration drives, and rejecting mail ballots.

After an array of voting restrictions disproportionately disenfranchised Abrams supporters in 2018, access to the ballot was expanded in Georgia in 2020, allowing for record turnout and the emergence of a diverse coalition that helped Joe Biden win the state. Abrams is expected to run for governor in 2022, and Georgia Republicans are already plotting how to prevent a Democrat from carrying the state again.

This feels, in a lot of ways, like the last stand for white supremacy and the Republican Party, says Ufot. They are going to break the machinery of democracy on their way out the door.

Already, some voters may have fewer opportunities to vote in the crucial Senate elections on January 5 than they did in November. Four of the ten most populous counties in the state are closing early voting locations for the runoffs. That includes Cobb County, the third-largest county in the state, which Biden won by 14 points.The county is cutting the number of early voting sites from 11 to 5, consolidating four voting locations in the southern part of the county that are home to many Black and Latino voters into just one. During early voting for the November election, some residents waited up to 10 hours to vote in Cobb County.

Cobb County elections director Janine Eveler says Trumps actions are already having an impact on the runoff elections. The reason six of the countys early voting sites are closing, she says, is that she cant recruit enough people to staff the early voting sites, given all the people working on the recounts Trump requested. (Amid an outcry, the county agreed to reopen two polling sites for the last week of early voting.)

But whatever effect the closure of polling placeswill have on the runoffs, its a mere preview of the much broader voter suppression strategy Georgia Republicanseven those who stood up to Trumpwill employ next year.

Read more:
Georgia Republicans Are Using Fake Claims of Fraud to Make It Harder to Vote - Mother Jones

All 50 states have officially certified the results of the 2020 presidential election as of this week, reaffirming what has been known for over a month now: Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States.

And yet, on Thursday, 106 Republican members of Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow the state of Texas to file a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the election results in the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all of which President Donald Trump lost. On Friday, Republicans filed an updated brief to include an additional 20 members.

Several hours later on Friday evening, the court rejected Texas's challenge, saying the state lacked standing to sue.

With electors scheduled to meet on Monday to officially name Biden the victor, it was a long shot that the court would step in. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices denied a Republican effort to challenge a 2019 Pennsylvania law that expanded mail-in voting.

Among the representatives who signed on are several members who have just won races in the very states whose elections they now allege are so rife with "irregularities" that they want the court to throw out the results. There is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.

Here are their names:

Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisianas 4th Congressional District

Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabamas 6th Congressional District

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisianas 1st Congressional District

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohios 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ralph Abraham of Louisianas 5th Congressional District

Rep. Rick W. Allen of Georgias 12th Congressional District

Rep. James R. Baird of Indianas 4th Congressional District

Rep. Jim Banks of Indianas 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Jack Bergman of Michigans 1st Congressional District

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizonas 5th Congressional District

Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Floridas 12th Congressional District

Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolinas 9th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Bost of Illinoiss 12th Congressional District

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texass 8th Congressional District

Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabamas 5th Congressional District

Rep. Ken Buck of Colorados 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ted Budd of North Carolinas 13th Congressional District

Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessees 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Michael C. Burgess of Texass 26th Congressional District

Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabamas 1st Congressional District

Rep. Ken Calvert of Californias 42nd Congressional District

Rep. Earl L. Buddy Carter of Georgias 1st Congressional District

Rep. Ben Cline of Virginias 6th Congressional District

Rep. Michael Cloud of Texass 27th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Conaway of Texass 11th Congressional District

Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansass 1st Congressional District

Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texass 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Floridas 25th Congressional District

Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolinas 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Neal P. Dunn of Floridas 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesotas 6th Congressional District

Rep. Ron Estes of Kansass 4th Congressional District

Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgias 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Bill Flores of Texass 17th Congressional District

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraskas 1st Congressional District

Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolinas 5th Congressional District

Rep. Russ Fulcher of Idahos 1st Congressional District

Rep. Matt Gaetz of Floridas 1st Congressional District

Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montanas at-large congressional district

Rep. Bob Gibbs of Ohios 7th Congressional District

Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texass 1st Congressional District

Rep. Lance Gooden of Texass 5th Congressional District

Rep. Sam Graves of Missouris 6th Congressional District

Rep. Mark Green of Tennessees 7th Congressional District

Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippis 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Andy Harris of Marylands 1st Congressional District

Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouris 4th Congressional District

Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahomas 1st Congressional District

Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisianas 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Trey Hollingsworth of Indianas 9th Congressional District

Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolinas 8th Congressional District

Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigans 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohios 6th Congressional District

Rep. John Joyce of Pennsylvanias 13th Congressional District

Rep. Fred Keller of Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvanias 16th Congressional District

Rep. Trent Kelly of Mississippis 1st Congressional District

Rep. Steve King of Iowas 4th Congressional District

Rep. David Kustoff of Tennessees 8th Congressional District

Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinoiss 18th Congressional District

Rep. Doug LaMalfa of Californias 1st Congressional District

Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorados 5th Congressional District

Rep. Robert E. Latta of Ohios 5th Congressional District

Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizonas 8th Congressional District

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouris 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texass 24th Congressional District

Rep. Roger Marshall of Kansass 1st Congressional District

Rep. Tom McClintock of Californias 4th Congressional District

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washingtons 5th Congressional District

Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvanias 9th Congressional District

Rep. Carol D. Miller of West Virginias 3rd Congressional District

Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigans 4th Congressional District

Rep. Alex X. Mooney of West Virginias 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahomas 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Gregory Murphy of North Carolinas 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washingtons 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolinas 5th Congressional District

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvanias 10th Congressional District

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvanias 14th Congressional District

Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolinas 7th Congressional District

Rep. John Rose of Tennessees 6th Congressional District

Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolinas 7th Congressional District

Rep. John Rutherford of Floridas 4th Congressional District

Rep. Austin Scott of Georgias 8th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Simpson of Idahos 2nd Congressional District

Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraskas 3rd Congressional District

Rep. Jason Smith of Missouris 8th Congressional District

Rep. Ross Spano of Floridas 15th Congressional District

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New Yorks 21st Congressional District

Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvanias 15th Congressional District

Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsins 7th Congressional District

Rep. William Timmons of South Carolinas 4th Congressional District

Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouris 2nd Congressional District

More:
Here Are The Names Of 126 Members Of The House Who Refuse To Accept That Biden Won - BuzzFeed News

Nearly 160 million Americans voted in the 2020 elections, by far the most in history and a level of turnout not seen in over a century, representing an extraordinary milestone of civic engagement in a year marked by a devastating pandemic, record unemployment and political unrest.

With all but three states having completed their final count, and next weeks deadline for final certification of the results approaching, the sheer volume of Americans who actually voted in November was eye-opening: 66.7 percent of the voting-eligible population, according to the U.S. Election Project, a nonpartisan website run by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who tracks county-level data.

It is the highest percentage since 1900, when the voting pool was much smaller, and easily surpasses two high-water marks of the modern era: the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy and the 2008 election of Barack Obama. Since the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which gave women the right to vote and roughly doubled the voting eligible population, turnout had never surpassed 64 percent.

The shifts that led to this years surge in voting, in particular the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged period for casting ballots, could forever alter elections and political campaigns in America, providing a glimpse into the electoral future.

A backlash from the right could prevent that, however. In many ways, the increase in voting is what Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are now openly campaigning against in their floundering bid to overturn his clear loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. whose popular vote lead grew to seven million on Friday. Republicans have portrayed the burgeoning voting ranks as nefarious and the expanded access to voting options as ripe for fraud despite the fact that the record turnout provided them numerous victories down ballot.

Though Mr. Trump and the party have not managed to prove a single claim of fraud in the courts where they and their allies have lost or withdrawn dozens of cases Republicans at the state level are vowing to enact a new round of voting restrictions to prevent what they claim without evidence is widespread fraud.

The swell in voting this year was powered by a polarizing presidential race and the many steps that election officials took to make voting safer and therefore easier during the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, according to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, 94 percent of voters said that voting in the November election was easy.

That ease in voting could also be read as access. The expansion of vote by mail, early voting, online registration and online ballot requests broke down many of the traditional barriers that sometimes kept people away from the ballot box. Others simply used long-existing laws as they sought to deliver a verdict on Mr. Trumps four tumultuous years in office.

The expansion of voting options also created a fall election season rather than a sole Election Day, a change that is likely to endure and force political campaigns to restructure fall operations with a greater emphasis on getting out the vote over a period of weeks.

We opened the doors to access, said Adrian Fontes, the top election official in Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, where, for the first time, more than 80 percent of the eligible population voted in the general election. It also flipped from Republican to Democratic for the first time in 72 years.

I think the most telling number is the 165,000 in-person Election Day voters, Mr. Fontes said about voter turnout in Maricopa County. When you get over two million people casting a ballot and less than 200,000 of them are actually walking in on Election Day and casting a fresh ballot, thats important.

In interviews, election officials tempered their enthusiasm over this years turnout by acknowledging several only-in-2020 factors. Mr. Trump is a unique public figure who drew considerable personal enmity from voters opposed to him. He ran at a time of extreme economic and social upheaval because of the pandemic. And lockdown orders and mass furloughs and layoffs gave Americans more time to consume news both on the internet and through the old-fashioned network newscasts, which had their highest viewership in more than a decade increasing their engagement with the election.

Voters really thought about how they were going to vote, and many had a plan and executed on that plan, said Kim Wyman, the secretary of state in Washington.

Although election experts caution against viewing the expansion of mail voting as the sole driver of turnout, it is clear that states that increased mail balloting or went to a complete vote-by-mail system had the highest participation. States that did not offer expansive vote-by-mail options were on the lower end of the scale.

Hawaii, for instance, had the lowest voter participation in 2012 and 2016. But last year, it passed a universal vote-by-mail system, and last month, it experienced the highest voting increase in the country. Early voting increased there by nearly 111 percent compared with 2016, and the states turnout of 57.5 percent was up by more than a third over all.

Other states that encouraged voters to use existing mail options also saw their records increase. In Minnesota, which had the highest percentage turnout in the country at 79.96 percent, election officials mailed out ballot applications to every registered voter and ran an $830,000 voter education advertising program to explain options already on the books.

There was no huge legal shift in the legal terrain, or some new method of voting that was not on the books before, said Steve Simon, the secretary of state in Minnesota. This was emphasizing and showcasing an option that had been there for a long time.

In a sense, the pandemic brought with it the realization of a long-held dream of voting rights advocates. For decades, they have sought to increase turnout by making voting easier through provisions such as day-of-vote registration, early voting and voting by mail.

Their goal was to help the country overcome a stubborn, national problem: For the better part of the past century, fewer than 60 percent of eligible voters have participated in national elections, and in some years, turnout has been far lower ranking the United States voter participation rate well below that of most of the developed world.

Democrats have been generally supportive of efforts to increase turnout. Polls and population data have repeatedly shown that the voters most affected by the difficulties of in-person, Election Day voting transient workers, people who move often or low-wage single parents who cant easily wait in long lines at polls on a Tuesday traditionally vote more for Democrats than for Republicans.

Similarly, polling and census data show that Black Americans, Hispanics and young people important elements of the Democratic coalition are more likely to be nonvoters than are older white people, a majority of whom regularly vote for Republican presidential candidates.

The introduction of same-day registration and early voting, for instance, contributed to a surge in participation by Black voters in North Carolina in 2008, helping make Mr. Obama the first Democrat to win there since 1976. Republicans in statehouses there and elsewhere have spent the years since trying to place new restrictions on voting, at times running afoul of the courts.

In Harris County, home to Houston and 4.7 million residents, election officials opened up drive-through voting sites across the county as a safe way to vote during a pandemic. More than 130,000 voters used the option. County officials also created multiple 24-hour voting sites for shift workers, and roughly 10,000 voters used them to cast their ballots.

A good chunk of them told us that they would not have voted any other way, that this made voting possible for them, said Chris Hollins, the clerk for Harris County.

Voting rights advocates have long viewed vote by mail as an important remedy for low turnout, but only with changes that would make it easier without compromising security. In many states, absentee voting has come with certain strings such as requirements for excuses, witness signatures or even notarization.

Colorado, Utah, Washington State, Oregon and Hawaii have moved to nearly universal, mail-in voting systems and have had their turnout rates rise without any significant instances of fraud or irregularities.

When we see vote by mail increase in any state, we simultaneously see a turnout increase, said Amber McReynolds, chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute and an architect of the vote-by-mail system in Colorado. Its about making the process more accessible.

Mr. McDonald, the professor, said that the wider embrace of voting by mail could have a significant effect on down-ballot elections, which traditionally have lower turnout; high propensity voters, he said, would be more likely to vote in local, municipal or off-year elections if a ballot arrived at their homes.

Almost as soon as the coronavirus spread throughout the United States, Democrats pushed for the easier vote-by-mail provisions, arguing, for instance, that the acquisition of the witness signatures could be difficult during a pandemic, particularly for at-risk older voters who live alone.

Democrats in Congress sought to make a similar push nationally, but they ran into stiff opposition from Mr. Trump, who gave rare public voice to the idea that Republicans dont want to make voting easier because that would make it harder for them to win. They had things levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, youd never have a Republican elected in this country again, he said in March.

In fact, Mr. Trumps logic that increased mail-in voting would automatically help Democrats proved flawed. Several academic studies have found that mail voting does not necessarily give one party an advantage over another. In Georgia, for instance, the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said that Mr. Trump would have won his state had he not dissuaded his own voters from using mail ballots.

Georgia, which voted for a Democrat for president for the first time in nearly 30 years, had 67 percent turnout.

Of course, even as barriers to voting were toppled and a broad voter education effort spilled across newspapers, cable news and social media, some political operatives saw the expansion of voting as rooted in the singular force that dominated American politics for the past four years.

Two words, said Robby Mook, the former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton in 2016, in an email. DONALD TRUMP.

Excerpt from:
Republicans Pushed to Restrict Voting. Millions of Americans Pushed Back. - The New York Times