ATLANTA (AP) – In Arizona, a Republican state senator was worried out loud that voter identification requirements proposed by his party might be too “cumbersome.” But he voted for the bill anyway.
In Iowa, the head of the state’s Republican election issued a carefully worded statement that did not say whether he supports his own party’s legislation, making early voting difficult.
And in Georgia, Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan left the room when Republicans in the Senate passed a bill to block early voting for all but the Republican Party’s most reliable voting bloc. Duncan, on the other hand, watched Monday’s acts from a television in his office to protest.
That’s the equivalent of dissent when Republican lawmakers push a wave of legislation across state houses across the country to make voting difficult. Bills feed on former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud to voters and many are sponsored by his most loyal allies. But support for the effort is much broader than Trump’s simple right-wing base, and the objections of GOP policymakers are so silent that they can be easy to lose.
“It’s horrible what’s happening,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who condemned the silence of Republican Party elected officials. “There has been no demonstrable, obvious failure or fraud in the whole system that would require the kind of ‘legislative remedies’ that Republican legislatures are employing. What the hell are you so afraid of? Blacks vote?’
Experts point out that most changes to debate would disproportionately affect black voters, young people and the poor, all groups that historically vote for Democrats. But Republicans are also pushing restrictions with the potential to put new burdens on Republican-leaning groups.
It’s an amazing change for a party whose voters in some states, such as Florida and Arizona, he had adopted the vote by absence and by mail. Several Republican strategists point out that the party can pass laws that only exclude its voters.
“There are several states and in various demographic populations where Republicans consistently outnumber Democrats in early voting and in absentia, and they have to be very careful because they could be shooting themselves in the foot to restrict it and make it harder said Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist.
If elected Republicans share these concerns, they have so far done little to curb the momentum of major legislation in competitive states like Georgia, Arizona, Florida and Texas, where Republicans control the state legislature and the governor’s office.
Democratic officials, civil rights leaders and voters are horrified.
Martin Luther King III said he spent the past weekend in Selma, Alabama, celebrating the 56th anniversary of his father’s bloody march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Instead of being a day of celebration, he said, there was a feeling that the civil rights movement was going backwards because of Republican voting proposals.
“There’s no doubt this is a higher level of Jim Crow,” King said in an interview. He said he is concerned that little can be done to stop the Republican effort in the short term.
“I’m not sure what would make Republicans change apart from losing in the next election,” King added. “There has to be a maximum effort for that to happen. They’re going to get very few votes from the community of color.”
Republicans advocating for change insist they are simply trying to help restore public confidence in the U.S. electoral system. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, but polls suggest many Republicans doubted the election result after Trump repeatedly falsely stated that he was a victim of the illegal vote.
In an interview, Trump’s ally, Ken Cuccinelli, used an explosive to describe King’s suggestion that the new laws are designed to deprive African Americans of their rights.
“I feel very offended by the idea that I’m trying to prevent anyone from voting,” Cuccinelli said. “There is no reason why anyone, regardless of their color, cannot access this system if they are a legal and appropriate voter.”
In Georgia, the state Senate has voted to limit access to email voting for the absence of people 65 and older, people with physical disabilities, and people out of town on election day. Legislation passed by the state House would also drastically reduce early voting hours, limit the use of early ballot boxes, and make it a crime to give food or water to voters who were in line.
During Monday’s vote in the Senate, several Republicans representing the Atlanta subway’s competitive districts did not vote, including Sen. Brian Strickland. He had tried to amend the bill in committee to remove the provisions annulling the vote for unexcused absence, but was unable to gather sufficient support.
If finally approved by both houses of the legislature, the change would put an end to a broad absentee vote that was launched in 2005 by a Republican-led legislature, after more than 1.3 million people voted for the absence by mail in November.
In Iowa, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed a Republican-backed bill that forces polling stations to close one hour earlier and reduces the early voting period to 20 days from the current 29. voting lists if a general election is lost and no change of address is reported or re-registered
Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate, who contradicted Trump’s references to widespread voter fraud last fall and extended postal voting during the pandemic, did not oppose the new law, but did not offer it either. no support after a Latino advocacy group demanded on Tuesday that it let it take effect.
“My office will continue to provide resources to help all eligible Iowans become voters and understand any changes in electoral law,” Pate said. “Our goal has always been to make voting easier, but hard to fool.”
And in Arizona, Republicans introduced dozens of bills to impose new voting restrictions, many of them aimed at the postal voting system that accounts for about 80 percent of Arizona’s ballots.
Some of the most aggressive proposals have died without ceremony. House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, quietly buried a bill that would have allowed the legislature to overturn the results of the presidential election and appoint its own representatives from the Electoral College. But other measures are being advanced, some with the support of Republicans who acknowledge the unrest.
The Arizona Senate voted this week to require identification, such as a driver’s license number or a copy of a utility bill, to be included on the ballots. Republican Sen. Tyler Pace said he feared it would reduce ballot secrecy and pose a serious barrier to many voters who do not have a printer at home.
“The problem is that every way of seeing it gets heavy,” Pace said during the bill debate.
Steele, meanwhile, warned Republican officials that they would face a fierce political backlash in next year’s midterm elections and beyond if they continue to hinder the turnout of some voters in some elections.
“If you shut up, you’re an accomplice. You are complicit in depriving African American voters of rights in key jurisdictions across the country, “Steele said.” They will route the next election if they continue this course. “
___
Peoples reported from New York and Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.