White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claims Republican state lawmakers are advancing controversial new voting laws because they do not like that President Joe Biden won the election.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Psaki said, “State legislatures across the country are passing a wave of anti-voter laws based on the same repeatedly disproven lie that led to an assault on our nation’s Capitol.”
“They are putting these laws in place because they did not like the outcome, and they continue to perpetuate a lie about the outcome of the election. That’s why we’re here,” she added.
Psaki went on to say President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to meet with voting rights groups and legislators who want to pass laws expanding access to the ballot to “empower them” and “continue to fight to get legislation across the finish line on the federal level.”
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After his electoral defeat, former President Donald Trump repeated the unfounded claim that he lost the election to Biden due to widespread fraud.
In the wake of Trump’s claims, Republican lawmakers have been passing laws with provisions that limit access to the ballot. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 14 states have passed 22 laws that curb access to voting between January 1 and May 14.
And at least 389 restrictive voting measures have been introduced in legislatures in 48 states.
Republicans have argued that their voting laws are not aimed at suppressing the vote, but instead are designed to protect the election process and election integrity.
Psaki’s comments come as Senate Republicans are expected to block Democrats’ sweeping voting rights bill, the For the People Act.
The Democratic bill is aimed at expanding access to voting, overhauling campaign finance laws, strengthening ethics rules, and protecting elections from foreign interference.
It includes provisions that require states to automatically register people to vote if they provide their information to a government agency. It would also require states with voter identification laws to allow people to vote if they have a sworn written statement verifying their identity.
However, Republicans have decried the law as a “power grab.”