“We know it to be true,” Sullivan argues, “that there will be Virginians disenfranchised by this piece of legislation all because of some concern about voter fraud for which there is no proof.”
That bill has stalled in the Virginia senate despite Republicans controlling the legislative body, indicating intra-party contention over the law after it swiftly navigated the House of Delegates with the support of Rep. Bob Marshall (R-Loudoun) and others.
New Hampshire state Sen. Regina Birdsell (R-Derry) has taken center stage as the face of the Republican argument for several reasons. For one, President Trump called her state out with the claim that Massachusetts voters were driven into New Hampshire by bus to cast illegal ballots, which has been discredited by innumerable sources. Even so, Sen. Birdsell’s response has become, to some extent, a sort of party line:
“I don’t know if there’s a lot of cheating. I just know that because of our loose laws, people feel that way.”
The common stance among many Republicans, in fact, is that legislation should be carefully crafted and passed to, at the very least, reassure citizens of the electoral process by bolstering voter confidence with stricter regulations. Sen. Birdsell calls this position “Trust But Verify.”
