A very high turnout contributed to Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. In some states, this rate is explained by the greater mobilization of representatives of minorities, particularly the black minority.
While it is true that more than 74 million voters registered their preference for Donald Trump, they were just over 81 million to support Joe Biden. The gap is significant, one of the largest in the country’s history.
In a healthy democratic system, one should rejoice in a high participation rate, especially if one allows greater or easier access to minorities who were, and still are, under-represented. Republican elected officials in some states disagree and are moving forward with new measures that will result in the suppression of votes. Rather than getting closer to the electoral clienteles that escape them, they prefer to complicate the exercise of the right to vote.
You may already be aware of certain practices which have the effect of obstructing the vote of the most disadvantaged and of minorities. However, we are now pushing the stratagem a little further. Reducing the electoral map or reducing the number of offices to register on the electoral roll is no longer enough.
Do you remember the slogan of Donald Trump’s supporters who marched on Washington in early January? “Stop the steal”, stop the flight, they chanted while they hoped that the elected representatives of Congress would reverse the results of the November vote. If nothing confirms allegations repeatedly rejected in court, we can however count 253 new laws that will result in the suppression of votes!
The leaders of these new laws are Georgia and Iowa. What can these new obstacles to voting look like? In Georgia, we are making a caricature by banning voting on Sundays. Why? Because on Sundays, in black churches, people from the community are encouraged to vote and they are taken to the polling station.
The vote of the black community was decisive in Georgia, a state which voted for Joe Biden, but also to send two black senators to Washington. As we have seen the success of church operations on Sundays, we have developed a tailor-made approach.
Let us not be fooled, when they drape themselves – not always – in broad principles to justify the reduction in the number of days to exercise the right to vote or to limit the means made available to voters to register their preference, the legislators of republican states are mainly concerned with one thing: limiting the influence of groups that are not favorable to them.
Since November, Donald Trump has constantly repeated that he was robbed of the presidential election. We’re looking on the wrong side: if there’s theft in 2024, you’ll know where to look first. The maneuvers are not subtle and the theft is carried out in broad daylight by elected officials.