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We're going to start today in Georgia for several reasons. It has two of the most competitive statewide races taking place in the country right now for governor and for the U.S. Senate. That contest had its one and only debate last night, and we'll have more on that in a minute. Also, Georgia was one of the most consequential states in the 2020 election when both U.S. Senate seats flipped from Republican to Democrat and President Biden became the first Democrat to win Georgia in nearly 30 years. And you might remember that former President Trump was so desperate to claim victory there that he made the now-infamous call demanding that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger find thousands of votes to overturn Biden's victory.

Now, those victories, those Democratic victories in 2020, came with record turnout, and measures passed during the pandemic to allow more access to voting by mail or drop box may have played some role in that. But since 2020, officials in Georgia, led by the Republican majority in the statehouse, have moved in the other direction, enacting a wide range of state voting laws that restored old restrictions and even added new ones. So we're asking what effect these changes might have on the midterms, as well as the next presidential election in 2024. For this, this is the second part in our series on changing election laws around the country. ...