ATLANTA (AP) – In Arizona, a Republican senator was concerned that the proposed requirement of his party’s identification requirements would be too ‘cumbersome’. But he voted for the bill anyway.
In Iowa, the state’s Republican chief of staff has uttered a careful wording that does not say whether he supports his own party’s legislation, making it harder to vote early.
And in Georgia, Republican Lieutenant General Geoff Duncan left the room when Senate Republicans passed a bill to block early voting for all but the GOP’s most reliable ballot. Duncan rather watched Monday’s proceedings from a television in his office to protest.
It comes down to disagreement as Republican lawmakers push a wave of legislation through state houses across the country to make the vote harder. The bills are fueled by former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of widespread voter fraud and many are sponsored by his most loyal allies. But support for the effort is much wider than just Trump’s hard-line base, and objections from GOP policymakers are so quiet that it can be easy to miss.
“It is appalling what is happening,” said former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who condemned the silence of the GOP’s elected officials. “There were no provable, obvious, systematic failures or frauds that would require the kind of ‘legislative remedies’ that Republican lawmakers tackle. What are you so afraid of? Black people vote? ”
Experts note that most of the changes in the order of the debate would unequally affect voters of color, younger people and the poor – all groups that historically vote for Democrats. But Republicans are also pushing restrictions with the potential to place new burdens on IDP-backed groups.
This is a staggering shift for a party whose voters in some states, such as Florida and Arizona, embraced absence and postal vote. Several Republican strategists note that the party may pass laws that exclude their own voters.
“There are several states and in multiple demographics where Republicans are consistently outperforming Democrats in early voting and the absence of votes, and they need to be very careful because they can shoot themselves in the foot to limit it and make it harder. make, “Terry said. Sullivan, a Republican strategist.
If elected Republicans share these concerns, they have so far done little to slow down the momentum of important legislation in rival states such as Georgia, Arizona, Florida and Texas, where Republicans control the state legislature and the governors’ office.
Democratic officials, civil rights leaders and voting advocates were appalled.
Martin Luther King III said he spent the past weekend in Selma, Alabama, celebrating the 56th anniversary of his father’s bloody march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Instead of being a day of celebration, he said there was a feeling that the civil rights movement was slipping backwards because of the Republican vote proposals.
“There’s no doubt it’s a higher level of Jim Crow,” King said in an interview. He said he was concerned that little could be done to thwart the Republican effort in the short term.
“I’m not sure what will make the Republicans change other than what they will lose (in the upcoming election,” King added. “A maximum effort must be made to do that. They are going to get very few votes from the community. of color. ”
Republicans who are pushing for the changes are insisting that they are only trying to restore public confidence in the US electoral system. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, but polls suggest many Republicans questioned the outcome of the election after Trump repeatedly, falsely, declared himself a victim of illegal voting.
In an interview, Trump ally Ken Cuccinelli used an explicit to describe King’s proposal that the new laws be designed to deny African Americans.
“I’m very offended by the idea that I want to stop someone from voting,” Cuccinelli said. “There is no reason why anyone, no matter what color they are, should not have access to this system if they are a legitimate and appropriate voter.”
In Georgia, the state Senate voted to restrict access to absentee ballots to people 65 and older, people with physical disabilities and people outside the city on election day. Legislation passed by the State House would also dramatically reduce early voting walls, restrict the use of early-voting subjects, and make it a crime to provide food or water to voters standing in line.
During Monday’s Senate vote, several Republicans representing Atlanta’s rival metro districts did not vote, including Senator Brian Strickland. He tried to amend the bill in committee to remove provisions that eliminate the excuse of absence without abolition, but could not get enough support.
If finally approved by both chambers of the legislature, the change would put an end to the broad-based absenteeism of absentees introduced by a Republican lawmaker in 2005, after more than 1.3 million people in November by post was absent.
In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, on Monday signed a GOP-backed bill requiring polling stations to close an hour earlier and shorten the early voting period to 20 days from the current 29. Voters will also of active is removed. voting lists if they miss a single general election and do not report or re-register a change of address.
Republican Secretary of State Paul Pate, who contradicted Trump’s references to widespread voter fraud last fall and expanded postage during the pandemic, did not oppose the new law, but also did not endorse it after A Latino advocacy group sued Tuesday to stop. it becomes effective.
“My office will continue to provide resources to help every eligible Iowan become a voter and to understand any changes in the election law,” Pate said. “Our goal has always been to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”
And in Arizona, Republicans have introduced dozens of bills to impose new voting restrictions, many of which target the voting-by-mail system that makes up about 80 percent of Arizona’s ballots.
Some of the most aggressive proposals died without ceremony. House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, has quietly buried a bill that would allow the Legislature to reverse the presidential election results and appoint its own representatives from the Electoral College. But other measures are progressing, some with the support of Republicans acknowledging discomfort.
The Arizona Senate voted this week to require identification such as a driver’s license number or a copy of an electricity bill at postal votes. Republican Sen. Tyler Pace has said he is concerned it will reduce the secrecy of the vote and create a serious barrier for many voters who do not have a printer at home.
“The problem is that it’s getting tricky in some way,” Pace said during the bill debate.
Meanwhile, Steele Republican officials have warned they could face a severe political setback in next year’s midterm elections if they continue to make it harder for some voters to run in elections.
“If you’re quiet, you’re complicit. “You are complicit in the disapproval of African American voters in key areas of law across the country,” Steele said. “They will stand the next election if they stay on this course.”
___
Peoples reported from New York and Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press author Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.