Abe Rakov

Opinion contributor

Republican politicians across the country are scared for their jobs, but instead of coming up with policy proposals to win over more voters, they’re trying to rig our elections.

Whether it’s kicking eligible Americans off the voter lists for simply not voting, refusing to process voter registration cards, moving or shutting down polling places, trying to confuse voters about requirements or any number of other shady tactics, Republicans across the nation are trying to stop eligible voters from voting.

They are, in short, attacking our democracy for their political gain.

We’re not talking about ballot integrity or election security here, and this isn’t just a policy difference between Democrats and Republicans. We’re seeing Republican politicians run a political strategy to manipulate who can vote and, ultimately, remake the electorate in their favor. They’re trying to rig our elections because they don’t think they can win any other way. It’s cheating, it’s wrong and it’s anti-democratic.

Voter suppression can decide tight races

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp is holding hostage over 53,000 voter registrations, more than 80 percent of them belonging to people of color. He is refusing to fully process them before the election — an election in which he is seeking a promotion to become governor.

This race could certainly be decided by 50,000 votes, so he’s trying to put as many bureaucratic hurdles as possible in front of voters whom he thinks probably won’t vote for him. These voters can still cast provisional ballots, but this will only add more confusion on Election Day — to the benefit of Kemp and the detriment of Georgians trying to make their voices heard.

In North Dakota, Republicans passed a law that makes it harder for Native Americans to vote. That’s about the most un-American thing I’ve heard of in politics.

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Republicans in the state required people to provide a residential address in order to vote, knowing full well that many Native Americans on reservations don’t have one and use a post office box. This law doesn’t make our elections more secure, but it does target Native Americans, whom Republican politicians believe are more likely to vote for Democrats. The Supreme Court last week could have stopped this injustice, but the court stood by and let it be implemented.

In Indiana, Secretary of State Connie Lawson kicked more than 480,000 voters off the rolls less than five months after the November 2016 election. In Ohio, Secretary of State Jon Husted purged thousands of voters from the rolls because they didn’t vote. And in Missouri, a judge just ruled that Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is implementing the state’s new voter identification law in a “contradictory and misleading” manner.

Republicans have become anti-voter

The list goes on and on. Republican politicians across the country have openly embraced voter suppression. They’ve become anti-voter.

Jason Kander and I started Let America Vote in 2017 to create political consequences for politicians who try to stop eligible voters from voting. Over 65,000 people across the country have signed up to volunteer to help us in that effort. Through this November and beyond, Let America Vote is going to fight back against these proposals because our democracy is bigger than politicians who will do anything to win an election.

So before you go to cast your ballot Nov. 6, check to see where the candidates stand on voting rights. Make sure you don’t vote for someone who might cut you out of the system in the next election. We can’t let politicians change the electorate to rig the vote. Our democracy is at stake.

Abe Rakov serves as Chairman of the Board of Advisors for Let America Vote, a national voting-rights organization. He served as the Deputy Secretary of State of Missouri from 2014-2015. Follow him on Twitter: @aberakov