Pro-Trump protesters at TCF Center in Detroit. Photo by Ken Coleman | Michigan Advance

Driven by false claims that the 2020 election was plagued by fraud that changed the outcome in statewide races — but not their own victories — Republican legislators on Monday gave initial approval to a host of proposals that critics say will make it harder for Arizonans to vote.

The changes include doing away with early mail-in ballots for virtually every Arizona voter, barring in-person early voting, requiring voters to present identification to drop off early ballots on Election Day and more.

And in pursuit of combating the imagined claims of fraud that fueled the Arizona Senate’s partisan review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County — which that examination couldn’t find conclusive evidence of — the Republicans on the Senate Government Committee embraced changes that will result in fewer Arizonans casting ballots, said Sen. Martin Quezada.

“That’s the theme here,” the Glendale Democrat said. “Each one of these bills is going to end up with less people voting.”

Republicans in Arizona and in state legislatures across the nation are pushing hundreds of measures to add barriers to voting and make it easier for them to overturn results they don’t like, often under the guise of stopping the exceedingly rare election fraud that they falsely claim is the reason why Democrats won close races in 2018 and 2020.

The Republican Party has defended political violence to overturn an election as “...

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