And it’s just getting worse.  The minute Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, Republicans went into voter-suppression overdrive, ostensibly to prevent “voter fraud.”

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Unlike the days of yore, when they at least tried to appear decent, Republicans across the country are not even attempting to hide the fact that these laws are a completely partisan exercise.  Alice O’Lenick, the Gwinnett (Georgia) Board of Registrations and Elections chairwoman for 2021 and 2022, said that after such a “terrible elections cycle” in 2020, she’s “like a dog with a bone...I will not let (legislators) end this session without changing some of these laws,” she said.  “They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts so that we at least have a shot at winning.”

 

In an Arizona voting rights case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2021, an attorney for the Republican National Committee (RNC) named Michael Carvin replied with this answer when asked by Justice Amy Coney Barrett why the RNC was even involved in the Arizona case: “Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats.  Politics is a zero-sum game, and every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretations of [the Voting Rights Act] hurts us.”

 

The most telling comment of all came from Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson when he responded to a question about automatic voter registration: “So, think about all those woke college and university students now who will automatically be registered to vote whether they wanted to or not.  You’ve got an uninformed citizen who may not be prepared and ready to vote.  Automatically, it’s forced on them: ‘Hey, go make a choice.’  And our country’s going to pay for those choices.”

 

…which was echoed by another telling comment by Arizona state Representative John Kavanaugh who said that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.”  He continued, “Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud.  Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting.” 

Wow, these guys have gotten really good at saying the quiet part out loud.

 

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that limits the number and locations of drop boxes as well as who can collect ballots from them; changes the process for requesting absentee ballots; and — by far the most alarming thing — gives more power to the partisan election observers who are present when the ballots are counted.

 

In Texas — the state widely considered to be the most difficult state to vote in already — Republicans almost passed legislation that limits the number of hours polls are open; requires people with disabilities who request mail-in ballots to produce written documentation of their disability; bans drive-through and outdoor voting as well as mass voting sites; restricts drop boxes; empowers poll watchers; and eliminates deputy voter registrars (the people who help voters navigate the voting process). 

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Even more concerning, the Houston Chronicle reports that the bill changes the burden of proof for voter fraud charges in Texas from “clear and convincing evidence” to the “preponderance of the evidence” and “would allow a judge to overturn an election if the total number of ballots found to be fraudulent exceeds the margin of victory.  In such cases, a judge could ‘declare the election void without attempting to determine how individual voters voted.’”

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Texas Democrats temporarily blocked passage of the Texas bill by walking off the House floor (preventing a quorum), but Governor Greg Abbott quickly reassured Republicans that the bill would be re-introduced in the following legislative session.

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In good ‘ol Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp signed a law that forbids the use of mobile polling places and reduces the number of drop boxes, plus shortens the time period before runoff elections which, in effect, reduces the number of voting hours.  Also, bizarrely, the law makes giving food and/or drink to people in voting lines an actual criminal offense.

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There are also two highly suspicious, and very concerning, power grabs in the Georgia law.  The legislation 1) allows electors to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters, and 2) takes authority away from the Georgia secretary of state and gives it to lawmakers who now have the power to overrule local election boards.  Very shady.

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Examples of voter suppression are vast and endless.  Some of the most obvious ones are discussed elsewhere in these books – things like gerrymandering and voting rights for people with prior criminal convictions, for example — so here we’ll discuss a few others, including unfair voting restrictions, scrubbing the voter rolls, and voter-ID laws.

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Let’s go straight to Georgia.  In 2018, then Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp ran for governor while, at the same time, was in charge of enforcing Georgia’s voting laws.  That seems fair, right? 

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During his race for governor, the Secretary of State’s office (as a reminder, led by candidate Kemp) instituted an “exact match” law, which put over 53,000 voter registration applications on hold.  “Exact match” laws require that citizens’ names on their government-issued IDs must match perfectly their names as listed on the voter rolls.  If there is any discrepancy whatsoever — even something like a missing hyphen or a missing middle initial – the name is flagged.

 

According to the Associated Press, in 2018 “Brian Kemp’s office cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012.  Nearly 670,000 registrations were cancelled in 2017 alone...Georgia’s population is approximately 32 percent Black, according to the U.S. Census, but the list of voter registrations on hold with Kemp’s office is nearly 70 percent Black.” 

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Hmmm....this was an interesting development given that Kemp’s opponent in the race for governor, Democrat Stacey Abrams, is Black.   Wow! That is just a huge coincidence!

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Even though a judge threw out Kemp’s unconstitutional “system” right before the election — saying there were “grave concerns for the Court about the differential treatment inflicted on a group of individuals who are predominantly minorities...The election scheme here places a severe burden on these individuals.” — Kemp nevertheless (surprise, surprise) won.

 

< Note:  Even though everything went down in Georgia exactly as we described above and despite the fact that Georgia is obviously right back up to its old tricks, we do want to send a shout-out to Brian Kemp for holding the line in the aftermath of the 2020 election.  Georgia was in the spotlight big time throughout the “election fraud” business and Governor Kemp, under enormous pressure from Donald Trump and other Republicans, did the right thing over and over.  Thank you, Governor Kemp!  The problem for you is that we now know you can do better, so please be your best self and stop with these renewed voter suppression shenanigans. >