I am guessing that you can look up every bill related to voting introduced by a Republican in every legislature in the entire country and you will not find one bill that makes voting easier or that encourages more people to vote. All of the bills will be aimed at reducing early voting, making it harder to vote by absentee ballot, requiring identification that many people (non-drivers, students, married women, the elderly) do not have, or making it easier to challenge and discard provisional ballots. With the possible exception of active-duty military serving overseas, you will not see anyone benefitting from a Republican-sponsored voting bill.
Their entire aim is to reduce the number of votes cast, and to do it in a way that assures that more Democratic votes will be lost than Republican. It’s that simple. It’s a version of cheating.
Now, the Republicans and much of the press respond that this is just of flip side of the Democrats’ push for vote-by-mail, early voting, etc. But this is a representative democracy, and encouraging citizen participation is not the flip-side of discouraging citizen participation. They are not equally partisan exercises. One act is legitimate, and the other is illegitimate. One act helps people exercise their rights, and the other seeks to take away their rights.
You can argue about the merits of any particular bill, but taken in their totality, the Republicans intent is clear. From sea to shining sea, they are trying to suppress the vote. You will not find any exceptions.
