NPR:

Primary challenges are a normal part of politics, but normally low-key races to be a state’s chief election official are taking on a different tone after the 2020 election.

At a recent rally held by former President Donald Trump in Perry, Ga., Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., stumped for his campaign to unseat Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“It is my deep conviction that Brad Raffensperger has massively compromised the right of the people at the ballot box,” he said. “He has opened wide the door for all sorts of irregularities and fraud to march into our election system, and it is time that we take charge of this.”

Hice, who objected to Georgia’s Electoral College votes after the insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol in January, is running on a platform that promises to “aggressively pursue voter fraud,” “renew integrity” and replace the state’s $100 million ballot-marking system that was rolled out just last year.

He is one of several pro-Trump Republican candidates in secretary of state races in swing states like Georgia, Arizona and Michigan who have embraced falsehoods about the systems they now want to oversee — attacking the 2020 election results and spreading misleading claims about voting machines and absentee ballots.