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ATLANTA (AP) – In Arizona, a Republican state senator feared loudly that his party’s proposed voter identification requirements were too “onerous.” But he still voted for the bill.
In Iowa, the state’s Republican Election chief released a carefully crafted statement that does not say whether he supports his own party’s legislation, making early voting more difficult.
And in Georgia, Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan walked out of the room as Senate Republicans approved a bill to block early voting for everyone except the GOP’s most trusted voting bloc. Duncan instead watched Monday’s debates from a television in his office in protest.
It’s tantamount to dissent as Republican lawmakers push a wave of laws across states across the country to make voting more difficult. The bills are fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false claims about widespread electoral fraud and many are sponsored by his most staunch allies. But support for the effort is much broader than just Trump’s outright right-wing base, and the objections of GOP policymakers are so silent they can be easy to miss.
“It’s appalling what’s happening,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, who condemned the silence of GOP elected officials. “There have been no provable, obvious, system-wide failures or frauds that would require the kind of ‘legislative remedies’ that Republican legislatures are embarking on. What the hell are you so afraid of? Black people vote?
Experts note that most of the changes up for debate would disproportionately affect voters of color, young people and the poor – all groups that historically vote Democrats. But Republicans are also pushing restrictions with the potential to place new burdens on GOP-leaning groups.
It’s a surprising change for a party whose voters in some states, like Florida and Arizona, had adopted postal and postal voting. Several Republican strategists note that the party can pass laws that exclude only their own voters.
“There are several states and in several demographics where Republicans consistently outperform Democrats in early voting and postal voting, and they need to be very careful because they could shoot themselves in the foot to restrict that and make the votes. more difficult things, “said Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist.
While elected Republicans share these concerns, they have so far done little to slow the momentum of major laws in competitive states like Georgia, Arizona, Florida and Texas, where Republicans control the legislature of the United States. State and governor’s office.
Democratic officials, civil rights leaders and advocates of the right to vote are horrified.
Martin Luther King III said he spent last weekend in Selma, Alabama, celebrating the 56th anniversary of his father’s bloody walk on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Instead of being a day of celebration, he said, there was a feeling the civil rights movement was slipping backwards because of the Republican vote proposals.
“There’s no question that this is a higher level of Jim Crow,” King said in an interview. He said he feared little could be done to stop the Republican effort in the short term.
“I’m not sure what would make Republicans change other than lose (in the next election,” King added. “There has to be maximum effort to make that happen. are going to get very few votes from the community of color. ”
Republicans defending the changes insist they are simply trying to help restore public confidence in the US electoral system. There was no evidence of widespread electoral fraud in 2020, but polls suggest many Republicans doubted the election outcome after Trump repeatedly falsely claimed he was the victim of an illegal vote .
In an interview, Trump ally Ken Cuccinelli used an expletive to describe King’s suggestion that the new laws are designed to deprive African Americans of their rights.
“I am very offended by the idea that I am trying to prevent anyone from voting,” Cuccinelli said. “There is no reason that anyone, whatever their color, cannot access this system if they are a legal and proper voter.”
In Georgia, the state Senate voted to limit access to absentee mail ballots to those 65 years of age and older, those with physical disabilities, and those out of town on election day. Legislation passed by the State House would also dramatically reduce early voting hours, limit the use of early voting drop boxes, and make it a crime to give food or water to voters in line.
In Monday’s Senate vote, several Republicans who represent competitive Atlanta metro districts did not vote, including Sen. Brian Strickland. He had tried to amend the bill in committee to remove the provisions removing the absentee vote without excuse, but he was unable to muster enough support.
If ultimately approved by both houses of the legislature, the change would end the no-excuse absentee vote introduced in 2005 by a Republican-led legislature, after more than 1.3 million people voted by correspondence by correspondence in November.
In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, on Monday signed a GOP-backed bill that forces voting sites to close an hour earlier and shortens the early voting period to 20 days from the current 29. voting lists if they miss a single general election and do not report a change of address or re-register.
Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate, who contradicted Trump’s references to widespread electoral fraud last fall and expanded postal voting during the pandemic, did not oppose the new law, but he did not oppose the new law. Nor did he offer his approval after a Latino advocacy group sued Tuesday to stop. it to take effect.
“My office will continue to provide resources to help every eligible Iowan be a voter and understand any changes in election law,” Pate said. “Our goal has always been to make voting easy, but hard to cheat.”
And in Arizona, Republicans have introduced dozens of bills to impose new restrictions on voting, many of them targeting the postal voting system that makes up about 80% of Arizona’s ballots.
Some of the more aggressive proposals have died unceremoniously. House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, quietly buried a bill that would have allowed the Legislature to overturn the presidential election results and appoint its own constituency representatives. But other measures are advancing, some with the support of Republicans who recognize the discomfort.
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 with mail-in ballots. Republican Senator Tyler Pace has said he is concerned that this will reduce the secrecy of the ballot and pose a serious obstacle to the many voters who do not have a printer at home.
“The problem is, every way you look at it gets tiresome,” Pace said during debate on the bill.
Meanwhile, Steele has warned Republican officials that they will face a fierce political backlash in next year’s midterm elections and beyond if they continue to make it harder for some voters to participate in the elections. elections.
“If you are silent, you are an accomplice. You are complicit in the denial of the right to vote of African American voters in the main jurisdictions of the country, ”said Steele. “They will regret the upcoming elections if they stay on this path.”
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People reported from New York and Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont of Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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