The Associated Press (AP) and CNN deserve a round of applause. Not for spreading regime-approved propaganda or advancing conspiracies like the Trump-Russia collusion hoax for years, but for finally discovering how election oversight works.
Both outlets published separate articles earlier this week warning of the looming threat of Republican-controlled legislatures exercising their constitutional authority to oversee and administer elections in their respective states.
“Lawmakers in several Republican-led states have been looking to exert more authority over state and local election offices, claiming new powers that Democrats warn could be used to target left-leaning counties in future elections,” the AP’s Christina Cassidy fervently wrote. CNN’s Fredreka Schouten and Shania Shelton employed the same talking point by referring to “critics” instead of Democrats.
Because as everyone knows, the party that casts its political opponents as existential threats to “democracy” is the most reliable and trustworthy arbiter when it comes to judging election laws.
The articles’ authors directed their fire toward the same GOP-controlled states, namely North Carolina and Texas. Regarding North Carolina — where Republicans hold veto-proof supermajorities in the legislature — both outlets attacked SB 749, a measure that would increase the number of members on the state election board from five to eight and allow General Assembly party leaders to appoint board members instead of the governor. Currently, state law stipulates that the governor must appoint board members from a list of nominees submitted by the heads of each of the two political parties and that no more than three members
