Republican leaders in local, state, and US government are like that hamster on his wheel. The little guy wanted to escape his little prison so much that he ran harder than ever, not realizing that was not the way to escape. And even if he had done so, there was a big black dog laying beneath him under the table, one who ate hampsters for appetizers. The Republicans are so desperate to save their own jobs that they corrupt the voting system in their slow-motion coup. They do not realize there would be no need for them in an authoritarian government. But not all members of the Grand Old Party (GOP) fall into that category.
The GOP has made headlines with a rash of restrictive voting laws. Arizona has an ongoing sham “fraudit” in action, as its secretary of state coined the word. Florida, Georgia, and Texas have been hot to “stamp out alleged elector fraud,” Reuters reported. Donald Trump continues to claim that Democrats or the Italians stole the election from him.
The pattern has been that the red states Trump won, have been fine with expanded voting issues:
‘Pending bills to expand early voting and voter identification options in Louisiana and Indiana, both states Trump handily carried in November, also have Republican support.’
In the meantime, Democrats and voting rights advocates have brought lawsuits against the state officials, calling their actions “partisan power grabs.” Trump brought over 60 lawsuits against state and federal judges “alleging fraud and other irregularities in November.” All but one were thrown out of court. The other stayed in due to a technicality.
But look at Vermont Governor Phil Scott (R). He just signed into law that makes his state’s head election official send each eligible voter a mail-in ballot.
This law formalizes a permanent universal mail-in voting system begun in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are six other states that do the automatic mail-in voter thing, too.
State Senator Corey Parent (R) supported the mail-in voting law. He told Reuters:
‘Republicans in Vermont reject the narrative being pushed out by Trumpers across the nation that making voting more accessible is ruining our democracy.’ We have to win elections on our ideas, not through these other unfortunate measures.’
Sweren-Becker pointed out that voter expansions did not happen in swing states during the presidential election:
‘When you’re not in a state where the margins are expected to be so close, that same voter suppression motivation is not necessarily at play.’
Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams said that voter fraud was not a problem in his state. Although, some people who lived there were worried:
‘[B]ecause they have a lower level of knowledge about how elections work.’
Adams worked with his Democratic governor to enable voter reforms. Both parties wanted them:
‘This could have been a bill like what you saw in Texas or elsewhere, because the Republicans have supermajorities, but they chose not to do that.’
The Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature passed a measure to extend “early voting and in-person voting options, created an online voter registration portal, and allowed voters to fix absentee ballots if they made errors.”
Republican-led Oklahoma placed into law last month “extending early voting in general elections.’ Its secretary of state said:
‘[We] saw no evidence of voter fraud in his state.’
The League of Women Voters was among many organizations that pulled in the votes that mattered in 2020:
‘Americans faced enormous, unprecedented challenges in a year when safe and equitable elections were more important than ever. Instead of running from this enormous challenge, Leagues and their supporters stepped up to the plate like never before.’
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