To Open The Sky
The Republican Party's Ruinous Revolt
In his 2018 book Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, David Frum observed:
“Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”
Conservatives prove how correct Frum was almost every day. For decades, they have been ignoring the wishes of the populace — the demos. Their goal is to rule, not to govern.
A brief history
Decline began for the Republican Party with the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan — he of the dictum "Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem." The slow downward slide gave us Newt Gingrich's "Contract [on] America" and Donald Trump's four years of baseless whining about "witch hunts" — as well as a Congress whose GOP members increasingly reject their oaths of office and their constutional duty to "promote the general Welfare." They obstruct almost every substantive measure Democrats propose.
The revolt contines due to the conservative majority Trump and Mitch McConnell manuevered onto the Supreme Court, and in various states where GOP-led legislatures attempt to consolidate power unto themselves.
These states' efforts fall into three areas:
- Voter suppression: making it difficult for people to vote — with an eye to partisan advantage.
- Intimidation of voters at polling places.
- Intimidation of election officials by threats to them or to their families.
Here I show selected examples of each. For an overview and links to supporting pages, go to the end of this report.
Alabama
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On 13 August of this year, Alabama secretary of state Wes Allen announced his intent to "remove noncitizens registered to vote" in the state. Allen's purge came up with 3,251 registered Alabama voters who had been "issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security." It turned out that many of those puged are naturalized citizens elegible to vote, and even some who were born here. But even had this not been the case, US law forbids purging voter rolls with 90 days of an election. Allen's purge was announced 84 days prior. The Justice Department sude the state on that basis. References:
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Arizona
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Arizona will require anyone who wishes to vote in 2024 to provide documentary proof that they are a citizen. Counties must verify the status of those who have not provided such proof and cross-check voter registration information with various government databases. Federal judge Susan Bolton has ruled that these measures do not discriminate against minorities. However, she struck down a requirement that registrants provide their state or country on birth on the registration form, holding that this violates a section of the National Voter Registration Act. References:
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Florida
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In November 2018, nearly 65 percent of Floridians voted to let felons* vote again. (Those convicted of murder or of a felony sexual crime are excluded.) The measure was Amendment 4, a constitutional amendment that automatically restored voting rights to most Floridians with past convictions who had completed the terms of their sentence. But Governor DeSantis, in June 2019, signed Senate Bill 7066 into law, barring returning citizens from voting unless they pay off certain legal financial obligations (LFOs) imposed by a court pursuant to a felony conviction. The problem is that the state does not consistently record LFOs. Thus there is no way for many felons to know what they would be required to pay. These rules have been challenged in court, but so far have been upheld. For 2024, Florida will also require drop-off boxes to be monitored. This means they will only be available during office hours, and may disappear from some locations. The reuslt is less flexibility for those choosing abesentee ballots. Gov. DeSantis calls this law too a measure to improve election security. It too has been challenged, and has been upheld. There are six amendments to the Florida State constitution on the ballot for 2024. Amendment 6, proposed by the legislature, would repeal a constitutional provision that requires public funding for elections. Amendment 4, citizen-proposed, prohibits laws that restrict access to abortion before a fetus is viable. Gov. DeSantis has used state agencies to combat the initiative and spent $12 million on ads against Amendment 4. References:
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Georgia
You may remember this request, made by Trump in a call to Georgia election officials after he lost the state in 2020. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to his everlasting credit, refused to go along. But Raffensperger, and Gov. David Kemp, still support Trump -- as does the state legislature, which passed SB 202. Saying the bill makes it "easy to vote and hard to cheat," Gov. Kemp signed it immediately.
The bill does make it easier to vote in some ways. But here is how it makes voting harder.:
- Anyone wanting an absentee ballot must provide a driver's license or other identification. Those lacking a driver's license or state ID must verify their identity in some other way.
- Drop boxes must be inside early voting locations. They will no longer be in libraries or other government buildings, locations convenient for many voters. Also, no drop boxes will be available for the final four days of an election.
- Each county must have a minimum of one drop box. But there are also maximum limits. These can reduce the number of drop boxes in larger counties. For example, Atlanta's Fulton County would go from 38 drop boxes down to just 8.
- A runoff election will now take place four weeks after the general election, versus nine weeks.
- The early voting period for runoffs will shrink from three weeks to one.
- Absentee ballots will be sent to voters 29 days before an election, versus 49 days prior.
- Requests for absentee ballots can be made 78 days before the election, versus 180 days.
- Volunteers will be prohibited from offering food, water and folding chairs to voters waiting in long lines. (The rationale was to prevent anyone trying to influence voters.)
- The law allows a citizen to challenge the elgilbility to vote of an unlimited number of other citizens.
Note that the claimed justification for this bill was concern over tampering with the election. This despite three recounts of votes in Georgia's 2020 presidential election, with no significant problem found.
Then in May 2024, Gov. Kemp signed Senate Bill 189 into law, adding still more restrictions. They include:
- Homeless individuals will have their mailing address for elections set as the registrar's office in their county.
- Registering to vote in another state or municipality will count as a change of residence. If the voter returns to the original district, they must renew their registration.
- Having proof of renting a post office box or private mail service will no longer count as proof of residency for voting purposes.
In addition, both measures exapnd the opportunities for citizens to challenge voter eligibility...
Both these laws have been challenged by the ACLU and other organizations.
Iowa
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Less than six months after Trump falsely declared the 2020 election had been stolen from him, Iowa's Republican governor Kim Reynolds took measures. "It's our duty and responsibility to protect the integrity of every election," Reynolds said in a statement when signing the bill. "This legislation strengthens uniformity by providing Iowa's election officials with consistent parameters." The bill puts restrictions on almost every aspect of voting in the Hawkeye State. Among its provisions:
References:
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Nevada
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Less than one month before the election, a right-wing group in Nevada is suing four counties in an attempt to purge 30,000 people from the voter rolls. This organization, the Pigpen Project, is working with True the Vote and Cleta Mitchell's Election Integrity Network to change the outcome of the 2024 election in swing states. Some 20,000 of those challenged are voters in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. The three other jurisdictions involved contain the next largest cities in the state. These lawsuits are the second step in their strategy. They are necessary because the county governments are following the law and the guidance of Nevada's secretary of state. Nevada government is obeying the federal law that prohibits purging the voter rolls within 90 days of an election. The lawsuits, and the press releases I link to below, tell us that this effort is well-financed. References:
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North Carolina
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The Tarheel State had allowed absentee ballots to arrive within three days after an election, provided they were postmarked on or before election day..However, its Republican-held legislature changed that in 2023 by passing Senate Bill 747, which would:
Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode his veto. As a result, 1,128 people were unable to vote in the March 2024 state primary. References:
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Ohio
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Ohio passed a stricter voter ID law in 2023. State officials have been criticized for not making voters aware of the new requirements, which so far have prevented 8,000 people from voting. Like Iowa, this year Ohio is requiring that each county can have only one drop box. Also, secretary of state Frank LaRose has required that anyone delivering a mail-in ballot for someone else must come to the registrar's office and swear out References:
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Tennessee
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Some states are making it easier for convicted felons who have served their time to get back on the voting rolls. Tennessee has gone the other way. An administrative procedure established in 2006, ostensibly almost automatic, is in practice almost impossible to complete. Only 3,400 felons, 1 percent of the state's total, have been able to restore their right to vote. But in July, the hill was made steeper. The Volunteer State now requires that a felon must also be granted clemency by the governor's office or have their citizenship rights restored by a circuit court judge. According to a 2022 report by the Sentencing Project, 472,000 Tennesseeans are unable to vote for this reason. (Only Florida, with 1.15 million disenfranchised, has more.) In one case, a man convicted in Virginia who regained his right to vote there was again denied after he moved to Tennessee. The state supreme court said he had to jump through all of Tennessee's hoops, just like any other resident. References:
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Texas
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During the second special session GOP Gov. Greg Abbott called in 2021, the Republican-led legislature passed Senate Bill 1. Signed into law by Governor Abbott, the bill:
In September 2024, a federal court ruled that a provision of SB1 violates violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The state, of course, plans to appeal at the Fifth Circuit and request a stay of this decision until the appeal is heard. References:
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Virginia
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As of 2022, Virginia is one of "the good guys" — a state that has placed responsibility for drawing its district maps with an independent commission. The second reference (Virginia Public Media) thoroughly discusses how the maps looked before that change, and why the change happened. To get a clearer look at the state's 11 districts as of 2020, click on the first image in the article to see a larger map. However, Virginia has tried to purge what it called "ineligible voters" from its rolls this year. The purge was necessary, Republican officials said, to keep noncitizens from voting. The Justice Department sided with voting-rights groups to oppose the plan, and a federal court struck it down on the basis of the National Voter Registration Act, which bars changing voter rolls within 90 days of an election. But the Supreme Court reversed that verdict. Gov. Youngkin called the move "a victory for commonsense and election fairness." References:
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Overview of states
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This section presents summaries of how states are suppressing voting.
References:
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My intent here is merely to summarize the situation in several states, and to add something about interference with state governments from the federal level. The details of these clashes and misdirections are complicated and evolve from day to day.
Here's the takeaway: While the Democratic Party is not blameless, this interference with legitimate governance is coming mainly from Republicans. They care nothing about their constitutional duties or the will of the people. They only want to rule, not to govern.
