Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) on Friday condemned the GOP’s efforts in several states to overhaul electoral rules, arguing that the Republican Party is currently “run by people who don’t believe in democracy.”
During an interview on Friday with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, Benson said that laws recently passed or proposed in some states are a direct response to “high right to vote ”in recent elections, including in 2020, when a record number of people voted, especially those in minority communities.
“Everything is in danger if you don’t have the power to control who represents you and hold them accountable,” Benson said. “And to those leading now who are trying to take that power away is reprehensible.”
The interview followed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
Brian Kemp Democrats View Georgia As Opening Salvo In War Over Voting Tornado Leaves At Least 1 Dead In Newnan, Georgia Bill Clinton On New Voting Restrictions In Georgia: ‘An Attack On Our Democracy’ MORE(R) Thursday night signing a controversial bill imposing sweeping ballot restrictions in the state, including limiting the number of ballot boxes and requiring photo IDs for absentee votes. The law also gives state legislatures extensive powers over the conduct of elections.
Michigan senators introduced similar legislation on Wednesday, limiting absenteeism voting in the state, including ID requirements and prevention the Secretary of State from sending unsolicited ballot papers in the absence or making them available online.
Republicans argue that the bills would help restore confidence in the state’s voting system, which they themselves helped undermine through months of debunked claims that Michigan election results had been tampered with with widespread fraud.
Benson, who faced violence from some of them after the 2020 election President Trump
Donald Trump Democrats View Georgia As Opening Salvo In War Over MLB Voting Could Move All-Star Game Out Of Georgia Following Controversial New Voter Restrictions Biden Dismiss Majority Of DHS Advisory Council Members MORESupporters of the vote to certify President Biden’s victory said Friday that Michigan’s proposed voting laws “would make it considerably more difficult for people to actually gain access to ‘voting rights’.
“There are a number of things that make voting rights management in Michigan very, very difficult and will have a definite impact on making it harder for people to vote, especially in historically disenfranchised communities, urban communities, among young voters,” Benson said.
She went on to say that the recent proposals “really underscore that the GOP in Michigan and across the country is a party run by people who don’t believe in democracy.”
“History tells us that after those high-voting moments, there are often attempts to take away the right to vote … and that’s what we’re seeing now,” Benson said.
Democrats have criticized the slate of new bills, with President Biden on Friday call the new law of Georgia Jim Crow in the 21st Century, ”because of the disproportionate impact it is expected to have on black voters in the state, which turned out to be in record numbers in 2020 and 2021 to secure electoral victories for Democrats.
Kemp, however, pushed back On this characterization, writing in a statement, “There is nothing ‘Jim Crow’ about demanding a photo or state-issued ID to vote in absentia – every voter in Georgia should already do this when they vote in person.”