Important swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused partisan brawls. The bills, laws and administrative rules — some of them tried before — shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote. Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.

They're just lousy people The Republicans trot out their zombie lies about voter fraud, but the reality is that the more people vote, the more Republicans lose. They're a demographic dead end , and they know that even their extreme gerrymandering isn't enough to save them. Their only option is to disenfranchise people, and make it harder for people to participate in representative government. Particularly low-income people. Particularly African American people.

digby:



I wonder if there are any other legitimate democracies in the world that are actively trying to make voting more difficult?

Republicans don't believe in democracy. Republicans are at war with democracy. Democracy threatens everything that Republicans have become.