WASHINGTON • President Joe Biden’s administration on Wednesday issued legal guidance aimed at curbing voting rights abuses in states such as Arizona, where Republican officials launched a contentious audit in a 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.”

Trump has claimed the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud, and his Republican allies sought on that basis to undo his losses to Biden in key states. Numerous states have passed Republican-backed voting measures in the aftermath of Trump’s claims.

The Justice Department also issued guidance laying out the federal voting rights laws governing elections in a response to states such as Georgia that have, among other measures, 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 said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This document a marker.”

The legal guidance fulfills a pledge that Attorney General Merrick Garland made in June when he vowed to aggressively enforce voting rights laws. After that speech, the department sued Georgia, accusing the state of unlawfully violating the rights of Black voters with its new voting rules.

Trump allies in Pennsylvania and Florida have said they are hoping to launch audits similar to Arizona’s.