30 Ways to Suppress the Right to Vote

Introduction

The FBI and the National Intelligence Director (Tulsi Gabbard) raided the Fulton County Elections Bureau looking for boxes of ballots. Additionally, the wretched SAVE Act has been hauled out again by the Republicans in the House. It was passed by the House in 2025, but hasn’t gone anywhere. But now now it’s back.

The FBI hauled off over 400 boxes of 2020 ballots, which have been counted three times. The results were the same. President Biden won Georgia by the number of votes that Donald Trump asked Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger to find. Brad said, “no, I can’t do that. You have your numbers wrong, Mr. Trump.” Do you remember that phone call? I do. I live in Georgia, and it was included in part of my book, The Trump Files. You can read the details there.

If you haven’t read the Save Act, please do. The SAVE act won’t save anything, but it will prevent millions of Americans from voting. There is no evidence of fraud in American elections, and it already illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote. There is not one reason to change how people register to vote. This is ploy by the the corrupt Republican Party.

The Trump administration is attempting to steal the 2026 election. If the Save Act were to pass in the Senate, they will achieve their lifelong goal. This goal is to prevent lots of people they don’t like from voting. You should know that this effort by Republicans to alter voting is one of the most serious challenges. We are facing this major issue.

The Brennan Center

Here is what two scholars at the Brennan Center have to say about the Save Act:

In every form, the SAVE Act would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate. This action is necessary to register to vote. Our research shows that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport. Millions lack access to a paper copy of their birth certificate. The SAVE Act would disenfranchise Americans of all ages and races. Younger voters would suffer disproportionately. Voters of color would be disproportionately affected as well. Likewise, millions of women whose married names aren’t on their birth certificates might face extra steps. These additional steps would be required just to make their voices heard. Sources: New SAVE Act Bills Would Still Block Millions of Americans From Voting, Eliza Sweren-Becker, and Owen Bacskai. The Brennan Center, Feb. 2, 2026.

I wrote what follows on April 18, 2021, soon after the Georgia legislature passed their “Election Integrity Act.” As soon as the Georgia legislature returned for their 2021 season, they were upset. They had lost three federal elections, which included the president and two senate seats. The Election Integrity act was a strategy by Republicans. They wanted to change the rules. They hoped they would do better in future elections.

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30 Ways to Suppress the Right to Vote: An earlier post written in 2021.

The suppression of voting rights has been a project carried out against Black, brown and Native American voters for centuries. Jim Crow local and state laws enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States beginning in the 1870s. The Supreme Court, in Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896, upheld racial segregation in public facilities in the “separate but equal” legal document. This document legalized segregation for the next 69 years.

After years of civil rights activism, the nation finally ensured the right to take part in civil and political life. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were passed into law. Specifically, Jim Crow laws were dismantled. Barriers to black enfranchisement were removed in the South. This included banning poll taxes, literacy tests, and other measures. Unfortunately, the voting rights act was altered in 2013 in Shelby County vs. Holden removing the rule that Southern States needed pre-clearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices.

As a result, many states initiated new campaigns of voter suppression. These include purging voter rolls. Brian Kemp engaged in this practice when he was Secretary of State of Georgia. In October 2017, Kemp purged 500,000 voters from rolls. Kemp mocked a press release from a Democratic candidate warning that Georgia is systematically deleting voters from the rolls. He continued the purge of voters up until he ran for Governor in 2018. He refused to step down as Secretary of State while he was a candidate for governor. And he ignored protests that staying in office was a conflict of interest. Kemp also blocked new registrations based on “exact match” law. These policies affect Black voters disproportionately. Georgia has consistently withheld documents to federal committees preventing acceptable oversight.

The 2020 Election

The 2020 election changed everything about elections in the United States. Donald Trump launched the Big Lie campaign. He said that the election was stolen from him. He claimed that he actually won by a wide margin. So, he sued several states with more than 60 lawsuits. Nonetheless, all but one was thrown out by state, federal and the Supreme Court judges. Trump has never conceded. Millions of people believe that the election was stolen from him. No evidence was ever presented to support any of Trump’s allegations of election fraud.

There was one other aspect of the 2020 election that affected its outcome and that was COVID-19. Local and state election officials made great strides and efforts to make voting safer and easier. For example, in Georgia, the Secretary of State encouraged mail-in voting by sending a ballot application to every registered voter. Drop boxes were available 24/7. Encouraging people to vote by mail was successful in states. Because state laws vary, many states did not start counting mail-in ballots until after the polls closed on election day. Thus, mail-in ballot results weren’t reported until late on election day, or one or two days later.

In many of the swing states, Trump was leading Biden on the evening of election day. He even claimed victory and no further ballots should be counted. This didn’t happen. Then, as more ballot results came in, many of these states flipped to Biden, giving him the election. A Second Blue Wave washed over these states resulting in Joe Biden being elected president. Trump and millions of Republicans claimed fraud, election machine manipulation, stolen ballots and more.

Voter Confidence

Republicans claim there is a need to restore voters confidence in elections and to make election more secure. Christopher Krebs was the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He announced that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history. He put out a statement as a result. It said: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes. No votes were changed. This was not in any way compromised.” Georgia counted the presidential ballots three times. They got the same result each time. Joe Biden won by more than 11,000 votes. Mr. Krebs was fired by Donald Trump the day after he told everyone how secure the vote was.

There was no wide-spread fraud in the 2020 election. Yet, Republicans are continuing to say that the 2020 election was not secure. The facts are not on their side. But, the Big Lie, repeated hundreds of times, has found its way into the heads of millions of Americans.

The Republicans lost the Senate and the Presidency in 2020, and the House in 2018. They are pissed. They have decided to change the rules of the game. And they believe this will help them win again. The Brennan Center for Justice has reported that 24 states are introducing over 55 restrictive bills. These bills aim to suppress voting in their states. Restricting access to mail and absentee voting are in bills in 18 states. According to the Brennan Center, Arizona and New Hampshire have the greatest number of restrictive bills. Texas is also in the same league as AZ & NH. TX will limit mail-in voting. It is reducing protections against voter intimidation, which occurs while people are standing in line to vote.

Republican Suppression Vocabulary

Republicans have a rich voting vocabulary. I’ve surveyed new election laws. I examined documents at the Brennan Center for Justice voting laws roundup. I reviewed a 16-page report of the Committee on Oversight and Reform in the House of Representatives. From these reports, a vocabulary of suppression emerged. Here are some of the key words Republicans use to suppress the vote and are included in their bills.:

Reduce, purge, cutoff, prohibit, limit, restrict, need, impose, slash, remove, prevent.

More than 30 Ways to Suppress the votes

The next are phrases found in voting bills. These bills have been proposed or passed during 2021 legislative sessions around the country.