A worker removes mail-in ballots from envelopes at the Sacramento Registrar of Voters in Sacramento, California, U.S., September 14, 2021. REUTERS/Fred Greaves
Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Republican Party has pushed to enact new curbs on mail-in voting, which surged in the 2020 presidential election and fueled former President Donald Trump's false claims that he was robbed of victory by widespread voter fraud.
Citing security concerns, 18 states passed new legal limits on mail-in voting in the months after the election, from extra identification requirements to shortening the window in which mail ballots can be requested or cast.
Mail-in voting is unlikely to be used as heavily in November’s congressional election as it was in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but voting rights advocates warn the new restrictions could disenfranchise voters.
As the COVID-19 pandemic surged across the country in 2020, prompting Americans to avoid public spaces, many states expanded mail-in voting to accommodate the increasing demand. Trump attacked the method as insecure, tweeting in May 2020 that mail-in ballots would “lead to massive corruption and fraud.”
It took four days for media outlets to declare President Joe Biden the winner, due in part to some states continuing to accept mail-in ballots for days after Election Day, so long as they were postmarked by that date.
Citing that delay as proof that vote tampering was afoot, Trump falsely...
The author and behavioural scientist, Gad Saad, has just published a book on what he calls “suicidal empathy”. He says that “a society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance a...