GOP's Proposed Voting Laws Are Based On "The Big Lie"

Republicans have proposed new voting laws in at least 43 states -- laws aimed at reducing the number of people who can vote (especially people of color). They think it will give them a better chance to win when fewer people vote. The excuse they use for these new laws is that the 2020 election was rampant with massive voter fraud.

Of course, that's not even remotely true. The claim is based on the "big lie" told by Donald Trump. He claimed that he actually won the election -- until fraudulent votes were allowed to be counted in many states. The truth is there was virtually no voter fraud in the election, and Trump lost because over 7 million more voters preferred Biden.

That did not keep Republican officials and Trump lawyers from accept Trump's big lie though. They took the lie to court several dozen times (and lost). Now they are using the same lie to pass voter suppression laws. They know the lie is not true, but it doesn't matter. The GOP base believes it, so officials are going to use it for their own advantage.

The following is part of an op-ed in The Hill by Juan Williams:

A joke?

Now she says it was just a joke.

Well then, who is going to tell Republicans?

Last week, lawyers for Sidney Powell, a leading voice claiming November’s election was stolen from former President Trump, said “reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact.”

But polls show most Republicans didn’t get the memo — they still think the election was stolen.

In an ‘Alice In Wonderland’ moment of truth falling through a rabbit hole into a twisted fantasy, Republican politicians now claim that because so many Republicans did take Powell’s joke seriously, they need to act to restore confidence in elections.

To get back to reality, there is no evidence of any election fraud.

But nonsense about restoring trust among people who fell for a joke is being cited in eight states where Republicans hold the majority in legislatures and are pushing new laws to give them control of vote counting.

In the real world, that is called a brazen, partisan power grab to give the GOP the edge in every future election.

The same inane claim to be fixing elections to reassure Republican voters is also being used in 43 states where Republican politicians are acting to cut down on absentee and early voting, and to limit hours for voting on Election Day itself, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Those efforts are based on what Powell’s lawyers now dismiss as a joke. And her joke is based on Trump continuing to spout the “Big Lie” that he didn’t lose the presidential election — it was stolen as a result of “large scale election fraud,” after he won by “historic numbers.”

The voter suppression efforts in these state legislatures is “fueled by the Big Lie of widespread voter fraud and often discriminatory in design,” according to the Brennan Center. The attempts “have the potential to dramatically reduce voting access, especially for Black and brown voters.”

In Georgia, the Republican governor signed a bill last week to allow the Republican majority in the legislature to take control of local election boards. It even makes it illegal for a stranger to hand a bottle of water to a person waiting in line to vote.

This sad joke can be heard echoing in Congress, too.

In the Senate, Republicans are fighting to stop a new bill from Democrats that would provide national protection for mail-in voting, early voting and same-day voter registration. The bill would also introduce automatic voter registration across the country. . . .

Trump’s lie and Powell’s joke took a violent turn on Jan. 6. Trump fired up his supporters by telling them “we will stop the steal,” before a mob attacked the Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Biden as the winner. People died.

Again, Republicans argue they are taking these steps to protect the integrity of elections without mentioning that those Republicans believe a twisted, baseless message from Trump and his allies, including Powe

Now Powell is saying in court that “reasonable people” knew it was not true.

That’s the real election fraud.