On Monday, the Huffington Post reported that Republican lawmakers are increasingly upset about the attention Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are devoting to state-level voter suppression.
"We have serious concerns that your letters appear to be an attempt to insert the Committee into particular state election proceedings, for which we do not see a legitimate legislative purpose," said ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) in a letter to Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "By seeking voluminous records relating to election administration of sovereign states, your investigation offends state-federal comity. In fact, the respective states are already working to resolve any issues with their election administration."
Jordan is referring to letters that Cummings and Raskin sent to officials in Republican-controlled states earlier this year, demanding information on election policy broadly considered to be deliberate voter suppression.
Specifically, the letters inquired about problems voters faced casting ballots in Georgia; the decision by Kansas officials to move a polling place in majority-Hispanic Dodge City to a place inaccessible to public transit; and a recent investigation of "noncitizens" on voter rolls in Texas that ensnared thousands of legal voters.
Voter suppression has kicked into high gear in recent years following the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a major portion of the Voting Rights Act that kept some of the worst offender states under preclearance.
