After the 2020 elections, in which Democrats excelled, winning the White House and both chambers of Congress, Republican officials in states across the country pushed sweeping voting restrictions. The goal, they said, was to help “restore public confidence” in the elections process.
It was a difficult argument to take seriously. There was no credible evidence of systemic irregularities, and the GOP push stemmed from Donald Trump’s so-called “big lie” about his 2020 defeat. Nevertheless, the effort described by many Democrats as the Republican Party’s “war on voting” led to wildly unnecessary election administration changes in many states.
Four years later, the GOP is in a vastly different position, having had a successful election cycle of its own. In light of the Republicans’ victories, there’s no need for the party to impose even more voting restrictions, right? Common sense might suggest the answer is yes, but Reuters reported that the “election denial movement he spawned isn’t going away — and appears to be strengthening in some areas of the country.”
A faction of local and national Republican officials who amplified Trump’s claims of a rigged 2020 election say they will keep pushing for stark changes to how Americans vote ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. … The movement’s agenda focuses on many of the debunked claims of voter fraud that Trump and his allies advanced after his failed 2020 re-election bid. These include requiring voters to show proof of citizenship, despite scant evidence of significant voting by illegal immigrants, and restricting mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes, neither of which have been linked to systemic fraud.
The report quoted a spokesperson for the president-elect and the Republican National Committee, who said the party still believes more election reforms are needed and Trump is “committed to … securing our elections nationwide.”
Left unsaid is that American elections are already secure.
It’s important to emphasize for context that in the run-up to Election Day 2024, Trump and his party continued to pretend that voter fraud and related election crimes were a national scourge poised to undermine the legitimate results. The GOP nominee, as he’s done throughout his political career, repeatedly told the public to see the process as “rigged.”
After he won, and Republicans captured control of Congress, such talk quickly evaporated — and yet many in the party still want to put new hurdles between voters and ballot boxes.
In other words, many GOP officials respond to defeats by pushing voting restrictions, and they respond to victories by pushing voting restrictions. It’s tempting to think the party just wants to make it harder for Americans to vote.
And while much of the Reuters report focused on state-based efforts, there is a federal component to all of this.
At the national level, the Republican sweep of the White House and both chambers of Congress in November could pave the way for passage of a law mandating proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Most Democrats have opposed the bill, known as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, saying it would disenfranchise eligible voters.
As we’ve discussed, the SAVE Act is a classic example of a solution in search of a problem. The point of the legislation is to require proof of citizenship to register to vote, despite the fact that (a) it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections; and (b) the bill’s far-right champions can’t find any evidence to support their effort. (House Speaker Mike Johnson said in May that he “intuitively” believes in the legitimacy of the problem, which continues to be amusing.)
Some Republicans have effectively argued, “Sure, noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections, and yes, evidence of noncitizens casting ballots is nearly impossible to find, but maybe there’s no harm in simply passing the legislation anyway? Just to be safe?”
Except, that’s wrong, too, because the legislation would add new and entirely unnecessary hurdles for Americans who want to participate in their own country’s elections — forcing them, for example, to produce documents such as a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. As House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has explained, “[T]his extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill is not designed to solve any problem on behalf of the American people. It is designed to jam people up and prevent Americans from voting.”
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of that going around.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
