The GOP's increasingly blunt argument: It needs voting restrictions to win
The last time Republicans made a big, nationwide push on voter restrictions, it was voter ID. Except while the idea was ostensibly about secure elections, a few unhelpful GOP souls occasionally pointed to something less savory: that it was about helping Republicans win elections.
It’s happening again — a lot.
A growing number of GOP officials have in recent weeks and months justified the voter restrictions their party is pursuing by pointing to the supposed electoral benefit. If there’s a difference between last time around and today, it’s that these ones cut considerably higher profiles.
A decade ago, Pennsylvania’s Republican state Senate leader and state party chairman both pointed to the state’s new voter ID law as helping their party win the presidential election in their state. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) did the same thing in Wisconsin in both 2016 and in 2012. And after that 2012 election, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer claimed his party was indeed trying to limit early voting to suppress Democratic votes.
“It’s done for one reason and one reason only,” Greer told the Palm Beach Post, before saying that Republicans essentially believed, “we’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us.”
Greer’s comments come with an asterisk, given that he was under indictment and later pleaded guilty to five felonies. But the thrust of his comments live on today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/14/gops-increasingly-blunt-argument-it-needs-voting-restrictions-win/
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