https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-justice-dept-warns-states-160226647.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday issued legal guidance aimed at curbing voting rights abuses in U.S. states such as Arizona, where Republican officials launched a contentious audit in a failed bid to reverse former President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.
In the guidance, the U.S. Justice Department raises concerns about the "unusual second round of examinations" into 2020 election results cropping up in various states even though none of the prior state recounts had "produced evidence of either wrongdoing or mistakes that casts any doubt on the outcome of the national election results."
The Justice Department also issued guidance laying out the federal voting rights laws governing elections in a direct response to states such as Georgia that have, among other restrictions, limited early voting and voting by mail.
"I think the reason we're issuing this as guidance is to tell jurisdictions generally that we are concerned that if they're going to conduct these audits … they have to comply with federal law," a Justice Department official told reporters on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This document sets down a marker."
The official who spoke to reporters on Wednesday said the Justice Department has not sent out any more letters since the Arizona one but has "spoken to people in various jurisdictions about their concerns with what's being proposed in those jurisdictions."