PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: February 23, 2023
Washington, D.C. – Today, Defend Democracy Project released a new report on the actions MAGA Republicans have taken recently to make it harder for Americans around the country to exercise their right to vote, and their pursuit of an anti-voting rights agenda in key states. These extreme Republicans and their agenda continue to be a threat to our democracy.
“Voting should be made easier in America, not harder – yet Republicans are doubling down and intensifying their voter suppression efforts,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director, Nicole Haley. “With hundreds of anti-voter laws still on the books, and more proposed, it is clear that Republican voter suppression efforts will continue to threaten our democracy for the foreseeable future while they try to achieve their goals of silencing the voices of those who disagree with them. The fight to protect our democracy is not over yet.”
Among the report’s findings:
- Nearly 2 in 3 voters agree that some voters experience barriers to voting and that those barriers are intentionally created. Even prominent Republicans like former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler have admitted that voter suppression efforts shaped the midterm elections.
- In Florida, MAGA policies have silenced Black voters through disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, reducing the Black share of the Florida electorate in the midterm elections. Now, nearly a third of the state’s electorate faces new barriers to early and absentee voting as restrictive laws enter into force.
- In Georgia, new voting restrictions reduced early and mail-in voting, precipitating lower Black and Hispanic voter participation rates, longer lines at certain precincts, and complaints of voter suppression.
- In Ohio, turnout fell by more than the national average during the midterm elections. Just weeks ago, the MAGA state legislature passed one of the most restrictive election laws in the country.
- In Texas, GOP officials rejected the highest proportion of mail-in ballots of any state in the 2022 midterm elections. Just weeks into the 2023 legislative session, Texas lawmakers have already filed dozens of anti-voter bills targeting majority-minority urban communities.
- Wisconsin became one of the hardest to vote in ahead of the midterm elections, and predominantly Black and Hispanic areas saw significantly lower turnout than other parts of the state as a result. Republican lawmakers have already introduced another slate of voting changes and ballot initiatives pushing for greater restrictions.
Read the full report here.
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