Voter Suppression In Georgia

Stephen Collinson, reporting for CNN:

Former President Donald Trump's campaign of lies about a stolen election just delivered a huge victory with a new Georgia law that could suppress the votes of many of the citizens who helped eject him from the White House.

Republican state lawmakers rushed through a broad law Thursday making it harder to vote that disproportionately targets Democratic and Black voters in a battleground vital to the 2020 election and future presidential and congressional contests.

[…]

The new law in Georgia requires more stringent voter verification requirements for absentee ballots, allows state officials to take over election boards and limits ballot drop boxes that make it easier for people to vote. The law allows any Georgian to make unlimited challenges to voter registrations, and, incredibly, makes it a misdemeanor crime for anyone to offer food and water to voters stuck in long lines to cast ballots.

Black voters hampered by the restrictions of voting in urban areas have often found themselves lining up for hours to vote in inclement weather. The clear targeting of African American voters in Georgia and elsewhere recalls some of the ugliest racial episodes of America's past, and is fueling claims of open Republican racism.

The part of this bill that makes it illegal to give water to voters waiting in lines has easily gotten the most attention, but some pundits have pointed out the scariest parts are the provisions that allow the Georgia state legislature to oversee elections and toss out ballots.

In any case, this should be a warning to southern voters in states that are inching left: don’t split the ticket with your state legislature picks. Even if you vote blue at the national level because you think it’s important to get rid of someone like Trump, that’s not enough. If you don’t get rid of bad faith Republican politicians down the ballot, they’ll come for you with a vengeance. Jim Crow voter suppression is alive and well, and the link between Republicans slowly losing power and Republicans passing voter suppression laws is 100% linear.

I do take issue with Collinson for framing this story as a win for Trump, whom I think should be getting the amount of national media coverage he deserves: none. Let’s not exaggerate his influence here. Yes, there’s a connection between the “big lie” narrative and this bill, but it’s not nearly as direct as the connection to Democrats and their policies simply being more popular among Georgian voters. Republican lawmakers in Georgia don’t really believe the election was stolen, it’s just a convenient cover to pass these laws, but Republicans can create a permission structure for themselves to do horrendous things out of thin air, and I feel certain this would’ve happened without Trump. Let’s not give him undue credit.