Of all the many reasons Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, including a failed COVID-19 response and a whole lot of racist rhetoric from Trump, one of the most important tools to that outcome was access to the ballot box. Because of COVID-19, most states allowed for mail-in or drop-off ballots which led to Americans turning out for the vote in record numbers.
Of course, the GOP wants that to stop. They’ve known as a universal truth for some time that high voter turnout spells disaster for them, so they’ll happily take away people’s rights to vote and couch it as an argument over widespread voter fraud (which doesn’t exist) and voter IDs.
Voting restrictions are antithetical to our values as Americans.@MayaOnStage breaks it down on the latest episode of The Lincoln Project Podcast: https://t.co/qrWDBBTtDY pic.twitter.com/V40Je5gw7n
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 13, 2021
The truth is that the new bills have nothing to do with voter fraud, or even voter IDs. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) offered an alternative to the most detailed bill created by Democrats, and in it he included stricter voter ID laws than are already required. Republicans turned that down and yet they continue to convince their voters that this is an argument about voter IDs. It isn’t. It’s about high turnout rates and what that means for GOP candidates. And they’re not done taking away the rights of Americans who don’t vote for them away, either.
According to The Brennan Center for Justice:
‘More restrictions on the vote are likely to become law, as roughly one-third of legislatures are still in session. Indeed, at least 61 bills with restrictive provisions are moving through 18 state legislatures. More specifically, 31 have passed at least one chamber, while another 30 have had some sort of committee action (e.g., a hearing, an amendment, or a committee vote). Overall, lawmakers have introduced at least 389 restrictive bills in 48 states in the 2021 legislative sessions.’
Twitter showed the general confusion that the average American has over the voter suppression bills being passed today and the pushback against them. Read some of their comments below:
