The 2006 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2006. Georgia incumbent Republican Governor Sonny Perdue ran for re-election to a second and final term as governor. Governor Perdue was renominated by the Republican Party, defeating a minor opponent in the process, while Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor narrowly emerged victorious from a competitive Democratic primary. In the general election, though Taylor ran a spirited campaign, Perdue was aided by the increasing tendency of the state to vote for Republicans and by his popularity with the public; polling showed his approval ratings above sixty percent. In the end, Perdue was overwhelmingly re-elected as governor, defeating Taylor in a landslide, becoming the first Republican Governor of Georgia to ever be reelected. As of 2022, this is the last time that Muscogee, Warren, Rockdale, Chatham, and Bibb counties voted for the Republican candidate for governor and the last time that Marion, Telfair, and Wheeler counties voted for the Democratic candidate.
Electoral reform in Texas refers to efforts to change the voting and election laws in the State of Texas.
Douglas Bryan Hughes is an American attorney and politician who is a Republican member of the Texas State Senate for District 1. He was first elected to the Texas Senate in November 2016. Previously, Hughes was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 through January 2017 as state representative for District 5, which includes Camp, Harrison, Upshur, and Wood counties in northeastern Texas. Senator Hughes authored some of the more significant legislation to come out of the 87th Session of the Texas Legislature. His bills on abortion, voting reform, and social media censorship prompted significant debate but were passed by both houses of the legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott.
Travis Hutson is a Republican member of the Florida Senate, representing the 7th district, which includes Flagler, St. Johns, and northern Volusia County, since 2016. He previously represented the 6th district from 2015 to 2016. Hutson also served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2012 until he was elected to the Senate.
Cecil Terrell "Butch" Miller is an American politician. A Republican, he was a member of the Georgia State Senate from 2010 to 2023, elected from the 49th district. Miller unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in the 2022 Georgia lieutenant gubernatorial election.
Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote. Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination. After the American Civil War, all African-American men were granted voting rights, but poll taxes or language tests were used to limit and suppress the ability to register or cast a ballot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 improved voting access significantly. Since the beginning of voter suppression efforts, proponents of these laws have cited concerns over electoral integrity as a justification for various restrictions and requirements, while opponents argue that these constitute bad faith given the lack of voter fraud evidence in the United States.
Matthew McDade Phelan is an American real estate developer and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 21, which includes most of Jefferson and all of Orange and Jasper counties in the southeast corner of the state. He has been Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives since January 2021. He has been censured by the Texas GOP.
Blaise Ingoglia is an American politician who currently serves as a member of the Florida Senate, representing the 11th district, since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2014 to 2022 in the 35th district, as well as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida from 2015 to 2019.
Ballot collecting, also known as "ballot harvesting", is the gathering and submitting of completed absentee or mail-in voter ballots by third-party individuals, volunteers or workers, rather than submission by voters themselves directly to ballot collection sites. It occurs in some areas of the U.S. where voting by mail is common, but some other states have laws restricting it. Proponents of ballot collection promote it as enfranchising those who live in remote areas or lack ready access to transportation, are incapacitated or in hospital or jail. Critics of ballot collection claim high probability for vote misappropriation or fraud.
The 2020 United States presidential election in Texas was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Texan voters chose 38 electors to represent them in the Electoral College. In a popular vote the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence won all the electors against the Democratic Party's nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris.
The Freedom to Vote Act, introduced as H.R. 1, is a bill in the United States Congress intended to expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, ban partisan gerrymandering, and create new ethics rules for federal officeholders.
Barry Fleming is an American politician who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2013 to 2024. He previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009.
Fair Fight Action is an organization founded in 2018 by Stacey Abrams to address alleged voter suppression in Georgia and across the United States.
Postal voting in the United States, also referred to as mail-in voting or vote by mail, is a form of absentee ballot in the United States, in which a ballot is mailed to the home of a registered voter, who fills it out and returns it by postal mail or drops it off in-person at a secure drop box or voting center. Postal voting reduces staff requirements at polling centers during an election. All-mail elections can save money, while a mix of voting options can cost more. In some states, ballots may be sent by the Postal Service without prepayment of postage.
Postal voting played an important role in the 2020 United States elections, with many voters reluctant to vote in person during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The election was won by Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. The Republican candidate President Donald Trump made numerous false claims of widespread fraud arising from postal voting, despite nearly-universal agreement to the contrary, with overwhelming amounts of supporting evidence, by the mainstream media, fact-checkers, election officials, and the courts.
Members of the United States Republican Party have reacted differently to Republican president Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 United States presidential election, with many publicly supporting them, many remaining silent, and a few publicly denouncing them. Trump falsely claimed to have won the election, and made many false and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. By December 11, 2020, 126 out of 196 Republican members of the House backed a lawsuit filed in the United States Supreme Court supported by nineteen Republican state attorneys general seeking to subvert the election and overturn the election results. The Trump campaign hired the Berkeley Research Group to investigate whether there had been voter fraud. The researchers found nothing, and the consultancy reported this to Trump and his chief of staff Mark Meadows on a conference call in the final days of the year, before the attack on the Capitol.
Democracy Docket is a liberal-leaning voting rights and media platform that tracks election litigation. It was founded in 2020 by lawyer Marc Elias and is published by Democracy Docket, LLC.
Following the 2020 United States presidential election and the unsuccessful attempts by Donald Trump and various other Republican officials to overturn it, Republican lawmakers initiated a sweeping effort to make voting laws more restrictive within several states across the country. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of October 4, 2021, more than 425 bills that would restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states—with 33 of these bills enacted across 19 states so far. The bills are largely centered around limiting mail-in voting, strengthening voter ID laws, shortening early voting, eliminating automatic and same-day voter registration, curbing the use of ballot drop boxes, and allowing for increased purging of voter rolls. Republicans in at least eight states have also introduced bills that would give lawmakers greater power over election administration after they were unsuccessful in their attempts to overturn election results in swing states won by Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The efforts garnered press attention and public outrage from Democrats, and by 2023 Republicans had adopted a more "under the radar" approach to achieve their goals.
The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as the Georgia Senate Bill 202, is a law in the U.S. state of Georgia overhauling elections in the state. It replaced signature matching requirements on absentee ballots with voter identification requirements, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, expands in-person early voting, bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, increases voting stations or staff and equipment where there have been long lines, makes it a crime for outside groups to give free food or water to voters waiting in line in order to solicit votes, gives the Georgia General Assembly greater control over election administration, and shortens runoff elections, among other provisions.
The Voting Rights Act of Virginia is a Virginia law that prohibits racial discrimination in voting and establishes a preclearance provision for proposed changes to election administration, among other provisions. It is modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and is the first voting rights act enacted in the American South.
