GOP is pushing 253 voter suppression bills — but one law could stop almost all of them

A new study released on Tuesday found that a sweeping pro-democracy bill House Democrats passed earlier this month would be the panacea that thwarts the nationwide GOP effort to make it harder for Americans to vote.

The Brennan Center for Justice — which has been tracking the hundreds of voter suppression bills Republicans have introduced across the country — found that H.R. 1 would block nearly every single one of the 253 bills from Republicans seeking to make it harder to vote.

“The landmark legislation would create a national baseline for voting access that every American can rely on, and it would foil state efforts to manipulate voting rules to exclude eligible voters or create discriminatory outcomes,” the Brennan Center wrote.

The study broke the 253 pieces of legislation into 15 categories and found that H.R. 1 would block all but one category of the bills. The only thing H.R. 1 wouldn’t block are bills that prohibit election officials from sending absentee ballots to those who do not request them.

The rest of the voter suppression legislation would be killed by H.R. 1, including the Georgia effort to cut back on early voting on Sundays and require ID to vote by mail, Florida’s and Arizona’s attempt to end permanent early voting lists, GOP efforts to shorten deadlines to receive absentee ballots, and bills seeking to ban ballot drop boxes, among other things.

H.R. 1 passed the House earlier in March. Every single House Republican voted against the bill.

Republicans have been lying about what H.R. 1 would do — often with absurd and hyperbolic claims — as they seek to gin up opposition to the bill.

Democrats first sought to pass H.R. 1 back in 2019. However, Mitch McConnell, who at the time controlled the Senate, refused to put it up for a vote, killing the legislation in the last Congress.

Now that Democrats control the Senate, H.R. 1 will get a vote. However, with the filibuster, the bill would likely die again without 10 GOP votes for the bill.

It’s why Democrats — including President Joe Biden — are expressing interest in amending the filibuster to make it more difficult for Republicans to be able to block bills like H.R. 1.

The growing momentum to amend the filibuster has enraged McConnell, who on Tuesday threatened to terrorize the Senate if the filibuster is repealed. He said he would grind business in the chamber to a halt and then vowed to undo Democratic legislation if Republicans take back control of the Senate down the road.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.