To stop Donald Trump from becoming President for Life, democracy activists must win this fall's election protection "trifecta"-- restore the voter registration rolls, make it possible for everyone to vote by mail and guarantee a fair and accurate ballot count.
The odds are formidable.
In 2000, 2004 and 2016, Republicans deregistered millions of potential voters in order to put George W. Bush and Donald Trump in the White House. In 2020, the nationwide total has been estimated in the range of 16 million. The disenfranchised would-be voters, of course, are predominantly young, low income and people of color.
In years past, the pretexts for making voting harder have been varied and creative. They range from suspicion of voting twice, to being an ex-felon, to voting in more than one state-- things that almost never happen.
This year, Republican lawmakers are stripping the registration rolls of citizens they suspect of having skipped two previous federal elections. Their determination to "clean" the voter rolls has been fierce, especially when applied to voting blocs that lean Democratic.
