Harris presses governors on voting rights

Vice President Harris on Monday urged a bipartisan group of governors to protect voting rights for all Americans amid concerns about the elections laws recently passed by some GOP-led states.

Harris addressed a group of 30 governors who traveled to Washington, D.C., for a meeting of the National Governors Association, and she made a point to bring up voting rights at the end of her remarks.

“I would also like to ask that in the spirit of bipartisanship that we think about our partnership in the context of our states being laboratories of our democracy, and in particular on the issue of voting,” Harris said.

“I believe that regardless of who we voted for in the last election, we all, as leaders of our nation, understand the importance of ensuring that all people who are eligible to vote have an ability and a meaningful ability to vote and access to the ballot,” she continued. “So I would ask that in this coming year, we work together to ensure that all Americans who are eligible to vote actually have meaningful access to the ballot.”

The 30 governors at Monday’s meeting included a mix of Republicans and Democrats. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan were among the Republicans in attendance.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), whose states passed the highest-profile election laws last year that most outraged voting activists and the White House, were both absent from the meeting. Critics have argued that those laws will make it harder for voters of color in particular to access the ballot by placing limits on absentee and mail-in voting.

Harris has taken on the issue of voting rights as part of her policy portfolio, and she has met with state-level leaders and grassroots activists as part of her efforts.

Two White House-backed elections bills failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate earlier this month, dealing a blow to Democratic efforts to strengthen federal voting laws.

Republican-led legislatures last year introduced hundreds of voting bills in the wake of the 2020 election, which saw record turnout and record use of mail-in voting. Former President Trump has repeatedly made false claims that the election was fraudulent, despite no evidence of any fraud that would have changed the outcome.