House GOP pushes voting restrictions, Democrats join forces behind new voting rights push

The fluid Republican concept of “states’ rights” has struck again in the House, this time on voting rights, or to be more precise, restricting voting rights in the name of election “reform.” As with abortion policy, Republicans want to limit a state’s right to set its own laws, subject to their approval.

To that end, they’ve modeled legislation on Georgia’s voter suppression laws passed in 2021. The American Confidence in Elections Act was approved by the House Administration committee last week. It would ban federal election funding to states that don’t revise their voting laws to require copies of voter ID with applications for absentee and mail-in voting. All states rely heavily on federal funding to support elections, so this would add a nationwide burden on one of the most efficient, accurate, and safest voting practices.