Building on the Big Lie

THE NATION'S COMMITMENT to “one person, one vote” is under assault. In the months after the horrific Jan. 6 violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we have seen the greatest effort to restrict the right to vote since the Jim Crow era. A sobering report by the Brennan Center for Justice tracks the surge of legislation proposed by Republicans in statehouses across the country that would further restrict access to voting, all supposedly in the name of election integrity. As of April, Republicans in 47 states had proposed, introduced, or carried more than 360 bills that would further restrict the right to vote by limiting early and mail voting, imposing further ID requirements, enabling voter purges, and other tactics. The good news is that there has also been a push to expand voting rights, with 47 states having introduced 843 bills to expand voting access. The challenge is that in 24 states in which Republicans have a majority in state houses and hold the governorship, many of the voter suppression bills will be difficult to overturn without a surge of public awareness and outrage.

Voter suppression has been a fixture in our democracy since the founders limited the right to vote to land-owning white men. The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act extended the right to vote to everyone, including Black citizens who were disenfranchised through violence and Jim Crow laws. Now, more than 55 years later, we are witnessing a resurgence of voter repression efforts.

Building on the Big Lie that the last election was stolen, GOP elected officials often proposed and supported these bills under the pretense of ensuring election security and integrity. Yet the supposed problem of widespread voter fraud is a fabricated one, designed to undermine public confidence in our elections and give cover to indefensible efforts to further deter and disenfranchise voters of color. These efforts include the recently enacted Georgia legislation that outlaws, among other things, providing food or water to people in voting lines; two dozen GOP-backed bills that would make it harder to vote in Texas; and many more across the country. The problem is that opposing and reversing these bills constantly places us on defense rather than on offense. What is really needed is legislation that can protect elections and safeguard the right to vote for the long term, which can no longer be left up to states. The capitulation of the GOP to voter suppression as a party strategy necessitates federal leadership and national standards for elections.

Does the GOP really want to be the party of voter suppression? We can’t allow the right to vote to devolve further into a partisan issue. Otherwise, instead of being a contest over ideas and leadership, elections will be reduced to a contest over who can best suppress certain voters. Republicans have already signaled opposition to two critical pieces of legislation designed to ensure free and fair elections in the future: the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. As Rep. Lewis said, “The vote is precious. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society, and we must use it.” Not only must we use it, it is imperative that we protect it.