Racing Against the Race

There are two campaign races: One for votes, one to suppress or overturn them. And while one candidate currently has a lot of momentum in terms of enthusiasm, the other candidate has a lot of momentum when it comes to convincing people the vote is rigged, limiting the number of people who get to vote, and laying the groundwork for disputing results. Heather Cox Richardson in Letters From an American on the little lies that support the big one: “The lie that there was widespread voter fraud in 2020 led to a wave of new state laws to suppress the vote. MAGA lawmakers defended these laws on the grounds that they must respond to voter fraud. The nonprofit law and public policy Brennan Center for Justice recorded that in 2021 alone, from January 1 through December 7, at least 19 states passed 34 laws that restricted access to voting. As MAGA Republicans and their plans—especially their assault on reproductive healthcare and the policies outlined in Project 2025—become increasingly unpopular, Republican-dominated states are ramping up their effort to keep the people they assume will oppose them from voting.”