Pro-Trump Republicans try to rewrite state election laws as a voting rights showdown looms in Congress

In Michigan, a group of Donald Trump's supporters is working on a petition to mandate an outside audit of the 2020 election and establish a grand jury with the power to arrest election officials who refuse to cooperate.

In Wisconsin, some GOP lawmakers are trying to sideline a bipartisan commission that oversees elections in the state.

And Republican legislators from Arizona to Florida are planning to take up new voting restrictions in upcoming legislative sessions.

As a likely showdown looms in Congress this week over federal voting legislation, Republicans aligned with the former President are pressing ahead at the state level to change voting procedures, conduct partisan investigations of the last presidential contest and seize more control over the machinery of elections.

Democrats and voting rights advocates warn that the unrelenting campaign to cast doubt on the legitimacy of President Joe Biden's 2020 victory over Trump could erode voter confidence in elections and increase the chances that losing candidates and their supporters will challenge the results of free and fair elections in the future.