The Trump administration is waging war on voting rights using justice department lawsuits, FBI investigations, and an executive order to limit voting by mail, moves mirroring the US president’s false claims he lost the 2020 election due to voting fraud, say election experts and ex-officials.

Since Donald Trump began his second term, numerous 2020 election denialists have been installed in key agencies such as the DoJ, the FBI and elsewhere to pursue widely discredited claims of fraud, which can intimidate election workers and voters in swing states that Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

The justice department has also filed lawsuits seeking sensitive voter data from 30 states – even though, by law, states control elections – and the FBI has launched investigations into debunked allegations of voting fraud in Georgia, Wisconsin and a few other swing states that Trump lost in 2020.

Trump in late March this year issued an executive order sharply tightening mail-in voting rules, which Trump has long claimed without evidence contribute to fraud. The order gives the United States Postal Service unprecedented powers to issue new rules making voting by mail harder.

The administration’s multi-pronged push to change voting rules is under way despite laws that empower states and Congress to set election rules, sparking lawsuits from states and nonpartisan voting rights groups.

Donald Trump has a strong record in this year’s primaries so far – with many of his preferred candidates winning their primaries.

But none have faced a self-funded rival with Rick Jackson’s spending power, the AP reports. Trump has backed Burt Jones, who, as lieutenant governor, was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, and the president has repeatedly praised Jones’ loyalty.

Jackson has chipped in more than $93m of his own money to win the nomination. The 71-year-old businessman amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he’s used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads.

Voters have been casting their ballots in primary elections in Alabama, Oklahoma and Georgia – where a closely watched runoff will decide who faces off against Democratic candidates in Senate and gubernatorial races in November.

In Washington DC - a Democratic stronghold - voters were also selecting a candidate for the party ahead of November’s mayoral election.

In Alabama, a Republican primary runoff for Senate between Trump-backed Barry Moore and Jared Hudson is another test of how far Trump’s endorsement can sway voters.

These primaries are the latest test of Donald Trump’s power over the Republican party. In deeply conservative Oklahoma, Trump has given his early backing to Kevin Hern in the senate seat previously held by homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin.

Hern has kept other potential big challengers at bay in Oklahoma, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1990, according to AP.

But a bigger test of Trump’s influence – which has usually proved potent in Republican primaries this year – may come in the crowded race to succeed outgoing governor Kevin Stitt.

In Georgia, meanwhile, Republicans will finalize their selections for gubernatorial and US senate elections.

For the senate, US representative Mike Collins and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley are the finalists for the Republican nomination. Whoever wins will challenge rising Democratic star Jon Ossoff for the seat in November.

In the Republican primary campaign for Georgia governor, Trump-backed Burt Jones was facing off against the healthcare billionaire and political newcomer Rick Jackson. Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state and longtime political enemy of Trump, was locked out of the race when he finished third earlier in the year.

We’ll bring you the latest results and reactions as the night unfolds.