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Ants in pants anxiety over state voting rules has mostly focused on efforts to curtail the liberal ballot access procedures put in place for the pandemic-year election of 2020.

New laws to restrict mail balloting, use of drop boxes, early voting days and handing out water or snacks in election day voting lines are deserving of concern.

But far more frightening, less publicized changes could allow partisan actors in some states to nullify votes and overturn elections if they dont accept the results as valid.

They open the door to sham elections like those in authoritarian-governed countries where the dictators dictate election outcomes so they never lose.

Could this happen in America, the worlds oldest democracy?

It almost did in the last presidential election. Incumbent Donald Trump, the clear loser, attempted to stay in power with strong-arm tactics to reverse the results under the false claim of a stolen election.

Whats more, he continues to peddle his electoral lie. Sadly, a recent public opinion poll revealed 50 percent of registered Republicans believe it. Trumps conspiracy theories are trusted more than evidence that no widespread fraud occurred.

The most dangerous effect of the lie believers is playing out in states with Republican legislatures influenced by Trump. They are considering, and a few have passed, partisan election review laws.

Georgia is a prime example. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger heroically refused Trumps coercive attempts to alter the twice-confirmed election results giving Democrat Joe Biden a 0.2 percent victory margin in Georgia.

Yet Georgias Trump- friendly legislature was not so valiant. Last year, it diluted the secretary of states election oversight powers by removing the office from heading the State Election Board. Instead, the chair is now appointed by a majority of state legislators or, if they are not in session, the governor.

Additionally, state lawmakers expanded the boards powers to allow it to intervene in county election board and probate judge election certification and voter eligibility responsibilities if those office holders underperformed.

So if a candidate contests election results and wants them changed to his or her advantage, the partisan mechanism is in place to nullify ballots and change outcomes, provided the candidates party controls the State Election Board.

Georgia Republicans insist it is not a return to Jim Crow-era voting laws. But if it looks like Jim Crow, flies like Jim Crow and caws like Jim Crow, then it probably is Jim Crow.

The Brennen Center for Justice at New York Universitys School of Law reported this month that similar legislation to manipulate election outcomes for partisan gain are under consideration in 13 states, many of them key battlegrounds such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida and South Carolina.

Alan I. Abramowitz is a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta and a senior columnist for Sabatos Crystal Ball, a political analysis newsletter produced by the University of Virginia Center for politics. He believes public fears that voter access restrictions suppress voter turnout are misguided.

Abramowitz bases his conclusion on his comparative study of state election turnouts in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. In both instances, he said, passion for or against the candidates drove voter participation.

Abramowitzs research found only marginal differences in the percentage of voter method preferences between 2016 and 2020 in comparing mail-in ballots, early days voting, ID requirements and in-person voting even though several states relaxed absentee voting requirements due to the pandemic in 2020.

Voting rules did not appear to have much impact on turnout and had no measurable impact on vote margins at the state level in the 2020 presidential election, he said in a recent article titled, Why Voter Suppression Probably Wont Work.

Current efforts by Republican legislatures to suppress turnout among minorities and other Democratic-leaning voter groups by imposing restrictions on absentee voting, early in-person voting and use of drop boxes or by requiring that voters present photo identification in order to vote are unlikely to bear fruit, opined Abramowitz.

He did acknowledge, however, in an interview with CNN host Michael Smerconish last week that the greater threat lies in votes lawfully cast being counted and results accepted by election officials, by the candidates and by their parties.

When all is said and done, our democracy depends on it.

BILL KETTER is CNHIs Senior Vice President of news. Reach him at wketter@cnhi.com

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