Republican Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, complained Thursday that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state is allowing people to encourage voters to participate in the two upcoming Senate runoff elections on Jan. 5, arguing that increase voter turnout could favor Democrats.
“Probably most importantly, they’re mailing out a solicitation —they’re mailing everybody out a solicitation to vote by mail. This is not in the state law, this is something that has been created out of whole cloth by the secretary of state,” Paul told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.
“But if they do it again,” he added, “Yes — I’m very, very concerned that if you solicit votes from typically nonvoters, that you will affect and change the outcome. So I’m very worried that Democrats will control all three branches of government, and they really, truly will transform America, but not for the better.”
Yup. Every few months or so, some ghoulish Republican luminary accidentally admits that their party’s stranglehold on the various levers of power in this country is entirely predicated on preventing people — usually from marginalized communities — from voting.
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Note that he did not say increasing voter turnout would “increase the likelihood of fraud” (itself a bogus assertion), just that it would “change the outcome,” which is a cagey way of saying “I won’t like what happens.” And those “typically non-voters” Paul is so worried about? While he doesn’t say so outright, let’s remember that Georgia is arguably ground zero for Republican voter suppression efforts that largely target Black and Latinx communities.
While this is hardly a surprise, given the time and energy the GOP has put into disenfranchising voters on the federal, state, and local levels, it’s still something of a thrill to hear them actually say the words out loud, and give voice to the unspoken understanding that Republicans cannot stand the idea of more people voting.
Put simply, Paul is carrying his party’s tradition of accidentally admitting that the more people who vote, the worse it is for Republicans.
Watch:
Rand Paul rails on how Georgia was supposedly stolen — “but probably most importantly” absentee ballot applications being sent out for the Senate runoffs.
“I’m very, very concerned that if you solicit votes from typically non-voters, that you will affect and change the outcome.” pic.twitter.com/J1TPaN02Us
— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) December 17, 2020
