Judy: This midterm election
cycle, candidates are vying for
a state office is responsible
for running and certifying
elections.
Several among these candidates
continued to deny the results of
the 2020 election.
We have more on what is at
stake.
Reporter: Election deniers are
winning Republican primary races
in critical battleground states.
Their victories have raised the
stakes for the November midterms
as a power oversea elections
could be granted to the same
people who falsely claim the
last one was fraudulent.
Following all of this closely is
Amy Gardner from the Washington
post.
Welcome back.
You did a deep dive into a
number of things.
Looking specifically at six
states that were key to the 2020
election including Arizona,
Georgia, Michigan, Nevada,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
You looked at the Republican
nominees for certain offices.
People you call election
deniers.
Which offices did you zero in
on?
>> We wanted to look at the
office that have say-so over
election administration and
certification.
We look at statewide offices
that have those powers.
Governors who certify the
electors.
Tecra tarries of state --
secretaries of state in many
states.
And federal office.
That is what we looked at.
The significance of those six
states is those were the ones
that Donald Trump contested and
they also decided the outcome
for Biden.
If you look at the results of
our survey of these offices, you
can see that in just three of
the six, election deniers won
who say they would not of
certify the results in 2020.
Those three states had to on
enough electoral votes or did
you have denied Joe Biden 270
votes.
That shows you what is at stake.
We have a contested election in
-- if we had a contested
election in 2024.
Reporter: You mentioned some of
these folks and one of them was
the Arizona Republican
gubernatorial candidate, Kari
lake who said if I were in
office in 2020, I would not have
certified the results.
>> She has said those that did
certify the result in Arizona
should be in prison.
Reporter: What do experts you
talk to say about this?
Assuming she wins and of the
same thing happened in 2024,
what prevents someone like Kari
lake disenfranchising voters?
>> We don't know what
constitutional scholars or
election lawyers told me is that
certainly Democrats and voting
advocacy groups would sue
immediately if someone like Kari
lake declined to certify a
popular result in her state but
would every judge in this
country uphold that norm?
Norms are only norms until they
are broken.
A lot of experts I spoke to say
they are alarmed the prospects
of fewer guardrails being in
place in 2024 and look at the
chaos we had in 2020.
Reporter: When you look at what
people are supporting --
candidates are repeating the
lie.
Another part of your analysis
was when you looked at people
repeating this lie winning come
across 41 states, out of 469
contest so far, more than half
Republican winners have repeated
the election lie or elect -- or
are election deniers.
There is an expectation they
will fight even if the next
election is definitive, is there
an expectation they will fight?
>> I think that the answer is
yes.
I think denying the 2020
election has become a price of
admission in the Republican
party and it has gone beyond
fealty to trump but it is gone
to the fealty to those false
statements.
Reporter: And we should also say
this is not a hypothetical.
Already, a number of states, 19
so far have passed voting laws
that critics say restrict voting
justified in part by the
election law.
When you talked Republican
lawmakers, what do they tell you
about why they are pushing this?
>> I've spoken to a number of
election -- lawmakers in Georgia
for example.
They say, not for attribution
but they admit off the record
that they had to throw this bone
to their constituents because
they believed the election was
stolen and they had to do
something to show they were
supportive of that.
It is a solution in search of a
problem.
Reporter: What does this tell
you about the potency of denying
elections in the Republican
party?
>> It is everywhere.
Ron Desantis announced the
prosecution of 20 people who
allegedly voted fraudulently in
that state and it was a huge
televised press conference.
He has coming to Pennsylvania
tomorrow to campaign with Doug
mastery on a -- Doug Mastriano,
another election denier.
Going to Pennsylvania is a great
clue that Ron Desantis is
running for president.
The day before he goes on a
presidential jag, he is making a
big announcement about election
fraud.
Reporter: Fair to say that 20
votes would not change an
election one way or another.
Amy Gardner, we will be
following your work.
Thank you.