Republicans across the country are trying to impose a sweeping regimen of voting restrictions. Texas's bill is the most egregious proposal yet. jonathanchait writes
This past weekend, former national security adviser Michael Flynn appeared at the “For God & and Country Patriot Roundup,” a right-wing conclave in Texas, where he endorsed a military coup. “I want to know why what happened in Minamar [sic]” — QAnon believers have fixated on Myanmar’s military junta as a precursor to a similar event here — “can’t happen here?” an audience member, who identified himself as a Marine, asked Flynn. “No reason. I mean, it should happen here. No reason.
But Flynn’s beliefs are not isolated, and as the drama in Texas indicates, they relate closely to the agenda of the party’s mainstream. A clear majority of Republican voters believe the 2020 election was stolen, and nearly a quarter of them support QAnon’s deranged fantasies. But Republicans can’t afford to completely alienate their pro-coup wing. That is why the consensus party stance is to act on the majority Republican belief that Biden stole the election, by imposing a sweeping regimen of voting restrictions, along with legal provisions that will allow Republicans to more easily challenge and overturn the next Democratic presidential election victory.
The Texas bill, which the state’s Democrats have temporarily delayed by fleeing the legislature to deny it a quorum, is the most egregious measure yet proposed in any state. It would not only impose the now-routine clawbacks of voting access: limits on early voting, drive-through voting, and other conveniences that allowed the state to record higher turnout. It would crack down on volunteers driving more than two people to the polls .
More alarming still is a combination of procedures seemingly designed to create a crisis should Democrats win a statewide election. The measure creates protections for poll watchers and criminal penalties for state officials who in any way obstruct or impair their “free movement” throughout polling areas. Recall that in 2020 Republicans deployed thousands of poll watchers, many of them with brains addled by Fox News and brimming with absurd claims of fraud.
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