GOP-Controlled State Legislatures Unleash Voting Suppression Binge

Congressional Republicans have characterized federal legislation on voting rights – including the Freedom To Vote Act and restoration of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, to be named after late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis – as a “federal takeover” of elections, and, as Senator Ted Cruz has called it, “a power grab to enable a power grab,” Alex Woodward reported for The Independent.

Photo Insert: More than a dozen bills restricting ballot access have been pre-filed ahead of 2022 legislative sessions in four states, and at least 88 bills in nine states will carry over from 2021 sessions.

Meanwhile, their elected counterparts in state legislatures have launched a partisan campaign to restrict ballot access and change the rules of election administration that would grant them greater control over the electoral process.

Last year, Republican state lawmakers passed at least 32 new laws in 17 states to change how elections are run, including efforts to strip oversight from election officials and put it into the hands of GOP-dominated state legislatures. GOP legislators filed at least 262 such bills in 41 states in 2021 alone, and more are expected as legislative sessions resume in 2022, according to the States United Democracy Center.

A parallel effort saw the passage of at least 24 laws in 19 states restricting ballot access, after GOP legislators filed more than 440 bills in 49 states last year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

More than a dozen bills restricting ballot access have been pre-filed ahead of 2022 legislative sessions in four states, and at least 88 bills in nine states will carry over from 2021 sessions.

President Joe Biden pointed out that such legislation can pass with simple majority votes, while minority representation in the US Senate can block consideration of majority legislation. “They want chaos to reign. We want the people to rule,” the president said in his remarks from Georgia.

“Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion. It’s no longer about who gets to vote. It’s about making it harder to vote. It’s about who gets to count the vote, and whether your vote counts at all.”

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