There are a lot of big political battles taking place in America. But none is bigger than the battle over the most fundamental aspect of democracy: the right to vote. Using elements of the big lie as fuel, there is a massive effort (with the Georgia GOP leading the way) to restrict voting times and methods in order to suppress the high turnouts that resulted in what some view as undesirable results. NYT: In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules. “The avalanche of legislation also raises fundamental questions about the ability of a minority of voters to exert majority control in American politics, with Republicans winning the popular vote in just one of the last eight presidential elections but filling six of the nine seats on the Supreme Court.” The state efforts are one side of the fight. The national For the People Act being pushed in Congress is the other side. NYT: Democrats take their first steps in what they hope will be big changes to election law.

+ Extreme partisan gerrymandering, money in politics, and voting rights are three of the big reasons why the US dropped to a new low in rankings of world’s democracies.