Republican legislatures in a dozen states have already passed new laws that restrict voting this year, a number that is likely to grow when Texas Democrats eventually return home from a walk-out meant to delay GOP efforts to pass yet another voter suppression law.

The wave of new voting restrictions could have been even bigger. In Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina, Democratic governors have either vetoed or are likely to block Republican voter restriction packages. But in at least three of those four states, Republican leaders are either actively pursuing or at least considering ways around the vetoes.

Other GOP lawmakers in those states, meanwhile, are still seeking to relitigate the last election and propagate the lies former President Donald Trump told about it through more radical means, mostly by trying to convince their party to conduct the sort of sham election audit that is nearing its conclusion in Arizona.

Theres a lot of different tools that the anti-voter side is using right now, said Joanna Lydgate, the co-founder of States United Democracy Center, a national voting rights group. Its unfortunately not quite as kind of cut and dried as, Well, if theres veto power, then its all good.

And even if Republicans dont succeed in working around the vetoes and implementing new voter restrictions immediately, they clearly seem to hope that continuing to weaponize election security will help them in heated gubernatorial elections next year, when GOP victories over Democratic incumbents could pave the way for Republicans to take even more aggressive steps before the 2024 election.

Circumventing Democratic Vetoes

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) vetoed a package of election reforms this month that the Republican-controlled legislature passed because he opposed a strict voter ID provision. The legislation contained a number of election reforms both parties agreed on, including provisions that would allow for absentee ballot drop boxes and that would permit election officials to begin counting mail-in ballots before Election Day.