The Republicans may not be good at governing but when they get a chance to help themselves manipulate elections, they are ON IT:
GOP state lawmakers across the country have proposed a flurry of voting restrictions that they say are needed to restore confidence in U.S. elections, an effort intended to placate supporters of former president Donald Trump who believe his false claims that the 2020 outcome was rigged.
But the effort is dividing Republicans, some of whom are warning that it will tar the GOP as the party of voter suppression and give Democrats ammunition to mobilize their supporters ahead of the 2022 midterms.
The proposals include measures that would curtail eligibility to vote by mail and prohibit the use of ballot drop boxes. One bill in Georgia would block early voting on Sundays, which critics quickly labeled a flagrant attempt to thwart Souls to the Polls, the Democratic turnout effort that targets Black churchgoers on the final Sunday before an election.
States where such legislation is under consideration also include Arizona, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Proponents say the actions are necessary because large numbers of voters believe Trump’s false assertions that President Biden won the 2020 election through widespread fraud.
“The goal of our process here should be an attempt to restore the confidence of our public in our elections system,” said Barry Fleming, a state lawmaker from Evans, Ga., and the chairman of the newly formed House Special Committee on Election Integrity.
And then he burst out laughing, saying, “sorry, it’s just SUCH a good scam!”
They are seriously trying to snow people into accepting their ridiculous explanation that they are doing this to “restore faith in the electoral system” because so many of their voters believed that the election was stolen. It’s enough to make your head explode.
First of all, they have been trying to suppress the vote for decades and nobody is fooled that they aren’t using this as an excuse to do what they always do. Second, it’s obvious that if their voters don’t trust the system it’s because their Dear Leader lied to their faces. An easy way to deal with that is to tell them the truth. He lied. He lost. And he lost because he was the worst president in US history.
But no, they are going to keep up this ridiculous charade as long as it works for them. But as the article makes clear, there is a down side to this. This crap mobilizes Democrats who, by the way, tend to be younger and able to stand in line for all those hours than the elderly GOP voters who have been voting absentee for years. They may very well be making it more difficult for their own voters than the people they are targeting.
But they seem to realize that their message of hate and racism isn’t really resonating with the majority of the country so they have no choice but to manipulate the voting system to have a prayer of holding power. And they are doing it right out in the open now, reduced to making up the flimsiest excuses ever.