Despite outrage over Georgia voting law, several states move ahead with election security bills of their own

Despite the national outcry that came from Georgia's recently passed election security law, several GOP-controlled state legislatures are working on passing similar measures.

Congress introduced dual bills last month, S.1 and H.R.1 that would reportedly put many elements of elections under federal control instead of state control.

"Efforts have been made to suppress the vote. Efforts have been made to introduce bills that would suppress the vote. A dozen states including Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, have introduced legislation to limit access to vote by mail,' said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Heritage Action, a conservative group, said that the state-level bills would increase election security, not take away rights. The group reportedly invested $10 million last month in swing states looking to implement similar laws as Georgia, Fox News reports.

"States across the nation are working to secure their elections and restore voter trust. Grassroots activists and state lawmakers alike are hard at work making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. I am thrilled to see so many states advancing laws that will inspire confidence in our elections, the bedrock of our democracy," said Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson.

Texas has advanced S.B. 7 and is currently considering H.B. 6, two bills looking at changing voting rules.

S.B. 7 would reportedly "prohibit election officials from sending out unsolicited mail ballots; ban drive-through voting; define a poll watcher's role and say he or she is "entitled to sit or stand near enough to see and hear the activity"; sets certain early-voting hours; and more," Fox News reports.

H.B. 6 would report deaths to voter registration officials and would ban paid vote harvesting services.

In response to protests in Texas calling the new bills "voter suppression, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told FOX 7 "We must stop this race-baiting on every issue. Election security is what the public wants. Over 75% support voter ID which Congress wants to eliminate by the way. Voters want confidence in their election system, SB 7 is not voter suppression, it's voter security."

Arizona is considering a number of bills. One that just recently passed bans private money from being used by government entities to conduct elections, in response to the money Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, gave to help cities and states run their 2020 elections.

Other bills being considered in Arizona include a bill hat would require either a photo ID or two other forms of identification with their name and address on it, one requiring the health department to report deaths to the Secretary of State, and a bill that would remove a person from early voting if they hadn't done so during two previous consecutive voting years.

Florida is considering H.B. 7041, and a similar bill in the Senate, which would only allow drop boxes under specific security measures, bans ballot harvesting, bans unsolicited mail ballots, has the state department and the motor vehicle department update voter files when someone updates their drivers license, and bans private funds use in running elections.

According to Fox News, Michigan is considering similar measures, but is carefully considering its options as Republican legislators do not expect Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to sign any legislation they pass regarding voting. A source told Fox that initiatives being considered include voter ID requirements, bans on private money uses in elections, ballot harvesting bans, and additional security for drop boxes.

In addition, Wisconsin and Tennessee have passed bills banning private money being used to run elections, and Iowa and Arkansas have banned unsolicited mail ballots.