The numerous scandals in the last presidential election in the US have predictably provoked a backlash from those who are supposed to ensure the integrity of electoral procedures, but in the heat of the pandemic have forgotten about it – the state legislatures of the US states
Congressmen in 18 states have already passed more than 30 laws to tighten oversight over election procedures. They are mainly devoted to banning “harvesting” and buying of ballots, limiting the scandalous practice of postal voting and introducing new rules for checking the identity of voters.
Representatives of only one party are trying in every way to obstruct fair election laws. Democrat spin doctors openly admit that unless these laws are quickly repealed in courts or Congress, they could be dealt a serious blow in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
In Texas, the Democrats took a desperate step: they simply boycotted the state assembly and almost all of them flew to Washington by private plane. But here was trouble: they had managed to catch a coronavirus and infect people around them whom they met in the capital – including aides to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Biden administration this spring proposed to impose its electoral reform on all of America under the name of the “Act for the People”. It would have introduced mass postal voting in all states and deprived local election commissions of the right to verify the identity of voters in any way.
The “Act for the People” was passed in the lower house of Congress by the Democrats alone, but the plan to federalise American elections was stalled in the Senate. It turned out to be too radical even for some old-school Democrats who refused to support it.
According to polls, about half of Americans support strengthening election laws, and about the same number believe that the outcome of the last election was decided by fraud. As long as the electoral scandals do not seem to end, Americans’ confidence in electoral institutions will continue to undergo a rapid erosion.
Malek Dudakov