Democrats, citing GOP voting restrictions, aim to flip secretary of state offices in five states
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State is launching an initiative to try to wrest control of those offices from Republicans, who the group claims have used their power to make it harder for certain demographics to vote.
Buoyed by successes last year in Arizona, Colorado and Michigan, the group has set its sights on flipping five more states in 2020. In addition to recruiting and supporting Democratic candidates, the association is planning a public education campaign on the importance of secretaries of state, who oversee the election process in most states.
The offices of governor, U.S. senator and even attorney general tend to get more attention in statewide elections than that of secretary of state. But Alex Padilla, California’s secretary of state and the head of the association, said Republicans understand the influence of the office and have used it unfairly to their party’s advantage.
“For all of the talk about taking back the White House and the Senate, all the important races that people tend to focus more on, in my mind it starts with making elections fair again,” Padilla said.
He said Republican secretaries of state not only facilitate more-restrictive policies for voters but also have mostly remained silent as President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have downplayed or blocked efforts to address Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Padilla said that instead of encouraging more people to vote, Republicans have sought to “limit or control the electorate … to tilt the scales in their favor by excluding voters who are disproportionately lower-income, disproportionately from communities of color, disproportionately young.”
In a video ad for the initiative, Padilla says: “The threat is real. Republican secretaries of state are helping Trump wage a Jim Crow-style assault on our voting rights.”
The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State hopes to unseat Republicans in Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia next year and will work to reelect Democratic secretaries in North Carolina and Vermont. Padilla said the group also will support Democrats in races this fall in Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. Republicans currently have a 25-to-22 advantage among secretaries of state. The office does not exist in Alaska, Hawaii and Utah.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/democrats-citing-voter-suppression-aim-take-over-secretary-state-offices-five-states/
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