People’s democracy collapsed after the 2020 elections
Gordon L. Weil has previously written for the Washington Post and other newspapers, served on US Senate and EU staff, headed Maine state agencies, and served as an adviser to Harpswell.
In the United States, someone always wants to prevent someone else from voting.
Initially, the owners didn’t want most people to vote. Whites didn’t want blacks to vote and men didn’t want women to vote.
The country is a great democratic experiment, but let’s not get carried away. Those in political control were unlikely to allow others to participate.
But the pressure for popular control could not be denied. Black Americans won the right to vote, at first only in theory. The popular vote replaced state legislatures in the election of US senators. Women got the right to vote. Eventually, the country moved towards an inclusive political process. It took almost two centuries.
But people’s democracy began to unravel. Ironically, the largest turnout in history for a presidential election sparked the most vigorous efforts to roll back the rapid progress made since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
From 1933 to 1994, the Democrats controlled Congress for almost two years. To end that control, Republicans had to distance the South from their rivals and make it harder for Democrats, especially black Americans, to vote.
Opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led many Southerners to join the GOP. His voter suppression efforts have focused on limiting access to voting.
While the GOP strategy worked, it was thwarted in 2020 by two factors – COVID-19 and Donald Trump. The virus threatened to drive voters away from the polls, calling for ways to help people vote. Trump’s possible re-election has spurred unusually strong support and even stronger opposition.
In response to COVID-19, many states have expanded mail-in voting and developed other measures, including public drop boxes and more convenient times to vote, including in locations away from polling places on Election Day. ballot.
Easier access attracted more voters. Nationally, people from every party and other electoral subsets turned out in greater numbers. While improved access didn’t favor Democrats overall, it could have been a factor for them in swing states.
Since 2020, states under GOP control have reduced the use of methods that facilitate access. Early voting dates and polling stations have been reduced. New forms of voter identification are required in some states. Texas even claimed it ran out of its new voter registration forms due to a paper shortage.
The 2022 congressional elections will be held in the new House districts. GOP-controlled states continue to group Democratic voters into as few districts as possible. The Democrats have done the same in a few places, but they have fewer opportunities because they control fewer states.
The US House elections this year are expected to produce GOP scrutiny, caused primarily by voter suppression and the new round of redistricting. The Supreme Court will not touch the political design of the districts. It is even difficult to get him to examine the effects of race.
Congressional Democrats have so far failed to enact federal legislation reversing voter suppression. In addition to reduced access to voters, following the 2020 election, some Republican states moved to control how votes are counted.
Trump attributed his election defeat to a corrupt vote count resulting in part from the use of mail-in ballots. He complained that mail-in ballots led to vote tampering as early tallies in his favor gave way to Joe Biden’s victories after the envelopes were opened. Repeated reviews, including by Republican officials, have found no evidence that Trump’s claims are true.
When he and his followers failed with these claims, they attacked the vote counters. In Georgia, for example, Brad Raffensperger, the GOP secretary of state, refused Trump’s request to overturn Biden’s victory. The GOP-controlled legislature eliminated its voting authority in favor of its own delegates. Similar movements have occurred in eight other states.
The Constitution gives states power over “the times, places, and manner of holding elections,” but Congress can overrule them. Partisan control of elections could end up giving a party a way to pick the winners, regardless of the popular vote. Democratic efforts in Congress to demand multiparty control of the process have failed, thanks to the filibuster and strong opposition of the GOP.
The January 6, 2021 insurgency attempted to force Congress to ignore official presidential election results in some states. Congress could now change existing law to ensure that vote counting is purely procedural, as it always has been.
Republican Senator Susan Collins is a leader in this effort, which will do nothing more than preserve the historic process. She now opposes efforts to end this new voter suppression. Independent Senator Angus King expresses concern over efforts to reduce popular control.
In the face of intensifying GOP voter suppression, Democrats must mount massive operations to get the vote out and launch legal challenges to partisan control of the electoral process. This year’s political wars could become even more bitter and bitter.