Nearly a dozen new state laws shift power over elections to partisan entities

At least nine states have enacted 11 laws in 2021 that bolster partisan entities' power over elections or shift election responsibilities from the secretary of state.

Among the dozens of election reform laws changing rules regarding how voters cast ballots, several have also diminished secretaries of states' authority over elections or shifted aspects of election administration to highly partisan bodies, such as state legislators themselves or unevenly bipartisan election boards. "Inserting partisan actors into election administration ... is really a worrying trend when you understand it in the context of what happened in 2020," said Jessica Marsden, counsel for Protect Democracy, a nonprofit founded by former executive branch officials in the White House Counsel's Office and Department of Justice. Partnering with States United Democracy Center and Law Forward, Protect Democracy distributed a memo raising the alarm over the "particularly dangerous trend" of state legislatures attempting to "politicize, criminalize, and interfere in election administration." Analyzing the Voting Rights Lab's state-level bill tracker and bill descriptions, ABC News identified at least nine states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Georgia, that have enacted 11 laws so far this year that change election laws by bolstering partisan entities' power over the process or shifting election-related responsibilities from secretaries of state.