 So, generally speaking, Democrats tend to do better in elections when turnout is higher and Republicans tend to do better in elections when turnout is lower. This isn't always the case, it is a generalization, and it's kind of an oversimplification, but nonetheless, this tends to hold true, and it certainly held true in the 2020 election. Democrats know this, and Republicans certainly know this. So going forward, they want to make sure that they are still electorally successful, and if they see numbers like that in every single election cycle, you know, since they are a minority party, it's going to be difficult for them to win if that many people show up. So what are they doing? Well, they are responding in state legislatures across the country with new draconian restrictions on voting. They're doing voter suppression, because if you can't win legitimately, then of course you cheat. So you enact Orwellian voter ID laws, and I say that they're Orwellian because the reasoning that they use is false. They claim that if they enact these voter ID laws, then we're just securing the vote. But in actuality, what this does is it targets poor people who don't have voter ID. Usually communities of color are affected by this the most. So if they get communities of color to stay home, a demographic that's mostly loyal to the Democratic Party, then of course that helps them. That drives down turnout and increases the chances that they will be electorally successful. So across the country, what we're seeing now is a crackdown on voting rights, so that way Republicans can make sure we don't see a repeat of 2020 and the things that they are doing is clever, but it is absolutely evil and it is antithetical to democracy. So Reed Wilson of The Hill reports, Republican state legislatures are advancing a rush of new bills aimed at limiting voting access and especially access to voting by mail in the wake of President Biden's victory last year in the highest turnout election in American history. In many states, Republicans have used those claims to cite unspecified concerns about the integrity of their own elections despite elections officials who show proof that counts were fair and accurate. Arizona State Representative Kevin Payne has filed legislation to eliminate a permanent early voting list, one that automatically sends absentee ballots to 3.2 million voters, three-quarters of the state's registered voters. The permanent early voting list was created in 2007 at the behest of both Republican and Democratic county elections officials. Payne has also introduced a bill to require a notary signature on any mail-in ballot in a state in which the vast majority of voters cast their ballots by mail. Top Republicans in Georgia are planning legislation to further restrict absentee voting after Biden won the state's electoral votes and Senators Rafael Warnock and John Ossoff defeated two Republican incumbents. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger total legislative panel last week he supported adding a photo identification requirement to absentee ballots. Pennsylvania Republicans have plans to hold more than a dozen hearings on election integrity over the next several months after Biden won the state by more than 80,000 votes. State Representative Jim Gregory has introduced legislation to repeal an expansion of mail-in voting. In Michigan, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Scherke has said he will work on a new requirement that voters show a photo identification at the polls. Biden won Michigan, a state Trump narrowly carried in 2016 by more than 150,000 votes, almost 3 percentage points. Wisconsin State Representative Gary Tochen earlier this year introduced legislation that would allocate presidential electoral votes to the winner of each congressional district rather than all 10 to the statewide winner. Even in states Trump carried, Republican legislators are working on new measures that critics say would impede access to the polls. Montana Secretary of State Christy Jacobson said last week she would support a measure that would end the same day voter registration. A Texas state representative has filed a bill to require faster processing of death certificates to remove deceased voters from the rolls in spite of a lack of evidence of fraudulent votes cast in the name of the dead. So they're going to claim here, look we just care about election integrity. But they know exactly what they're doing. This is a concerted effort by Republican parties across the country to suppress the vote. They know the impact that voter ID laws have, especially on communities of color, poor communities. They know what these things are going to accomplish specifically with regard to their electoral chances. And when it comes to the legislation that was referenced in Wisconsin, where they basically award electoral votes based on the district itself, well, if you look at Wisconsin, Donald Trump won a majority of districts in Wisconsin. So if they changed it so that way you kind of have like a mini electoral college in Wisconsin, what would happen? Well, that would tilt the state in favor of Republicans permanently. So that way, rather than just like counting the entire state where you have big cities that make up the bulk of the votes, well, rural areas would have a larger say. And of course, that would benefit Republicans by a lot. This is absolutely transparent. Anyone who claims that this isn't an active effort to suppress the votes, they are absolutely naive. And so what this communicates to Democrats is they have to act. They have to counter this. And the way that you counter this is by expanding democracy. So now that they have control of government, over the next couple of years, this is what Biden and the Democrats have to focus on. They have to have a new Voting Rights Act. We make voting a national holiday. We expand suffrage universally to every single American. You make DC and Puerto Rico states. You pack the Supreme Court to make sure that these new laws that you enact to save voting and protect voting don't get struck down by a conservative majority on the court. You get rid of the Electoral College, if that's at all possible, and you put undocumented immigrants on a fast track to citizenship. If I had my way, anyone who's here currently would get citizenship, but you make them citizens because they are Americans. They're part of American culture. They have jobs. They pay taxes. They deserve citizenship and they deserve to have a say. But if Democrats don't act, if they don't advance statehood for DC at a minimum and give Puerto Rico the right to self-determination, then they're screwed. We need a new Voting Rights Act. If you don't expand voting rights, Republicans will win. And the response to this is, well, look, how is all of what you're proposing different than what the Republicans are proposing? They're proposing voter ID laws to suppress the votes, but isn't what you're doing going to suppress Republican votes? Well, no. What I am proposing that Democrats do is strengthen democracy, consolidate democracy, make it so people have a say, make it so it's easier to vote. It's quite literally enhancing our democracy. So that's not rigging the rules in the way that Republicans are rigging the rules. They're trying to make it more difficult for people to vote. They're literally trying to disenfranchise people. That is antithetical to democracy. So if we enhance democracy, expand suffrage universally, and Republicans can no longer find it as easy to win under those circumstances of a better democracy, a more improved democracy, that's on them. Maybe they actually have to make a pitch to voters, propose something, I don't know, something that people like that's popular, not just bank on racism and xenophobia to win elections and fear mongering about guns being taken away, which never happens. Like this is absolutely crucial. And if Democrats don't take this threat seriously, Republicans will be successful. And even though they're a minority party, they will continue to win because even though changing demographics makes it seem as if Republicans in the future will be shut out of government, just based on like how many people vote Democrat versus Republican, they know what they're doing. They know that long term, if they want to continue winning, they have to rig the rules in their favor even more. So if Democrats don't respond to this, then it's going to be on them. But the problem is that Democrats won't suffer the consequences of this working class people will. Because if the Republican party continues to gain power, then all we see is us like march towards this path of annihilation where we don't have a planet that is habitable where corporations continue to get more and more tax cuts and elites get everything while the poor and working class suffer and starve. So in order for us to even have a chance to put pressure on the Democratic party to enact progressive legislation, we have to make sure that Republicans aren't able to rig the rules in their favor. And I think that this is really important. If we don't see a new voting rights act and a commitment by Democrats to actually strengthen democracy and expand statehood to more territories, then Republicans will be successful here. It depends on Democrats. If they don't use this opportunity to strengthen democracy, then what we see now this effort from Republicans across the country to actually rig elections in their favor, it's going to pay off for them. It will pay off for them. So I hope Democrats take this threat very seriously because Republicans know the only way that they can win with changing demographics is to cheat. And they're going to do that. They'll even try to steal elections if that means they're going to get access to power. Because this is what the Republican party does. They're no longer the party of gun rights and against abortion. This is a party that is fully authoritarian. Like the transformation is almost complete.