The moves range from requiring legislative approval of court settlements in election-related lawsuits to creating paths for taking over local election offices. “There are ways that states can intervene and help local election officials,” said David Levine, a former local election official in Idaho who is now a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy. Some of the legislation passed during that time by Republican lawmakers has led to additional concerns about partisan interference. Fears of a takeover did not come to pass in Georgia after the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a bill in 2021 that gave the State Election Board the power to intervene in county election offices and remove local election officials. In Wisconsin, state election commissioners are scheduled to meet this coming week to consider whether Meagan Wolfe, the state’s nonpartisan election administrator, should serve another term.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 26, 2023 03:45 UTC