Candid Republican operators admit that voter ID laws are about disenfranchisement

The Brennan Center has rounded up a rogues' gallery of candid, on-the-record admissions from Republican politicians, officials, and operators about the true nature of the unconstitutional voter restriction laws that were cookie-cuttered across the Tea Party state governments: they don't fight voter fraud (because that's not a thing), but they do disenfranchise traditional democratic voters: people of color and students.


Conservative Leader Argues Voter ID Skews Elections Toward Conservatives
Heritage Foundation president and former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said in an April 2016 radio interview, "[Voter ID laws are] something we're working on all over the country, because in the states where they do have voter ID laws you've seen, actually, elections begin to change towards more conservative candidates."

Georgia Politician Complains When Early Voting Location Opens in Black Neighborhood
Georgia State Sen. Fran Millar (R) vented on social media following the state's opening of a new early voting location in 2014. "This location is dominated by African American shoppers and near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist," he wrote in a Facebook post.

Ohio Republican Says Early Voting Shouldn't Cater to African-Americans
In 2012, in response to a state-level battle over early voting hours, Doug Preisse, chairman of Franklin County, Ohio's Republican Party, told The Columbus Dispatch, "I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter turnout machine."


When Politicians Tell the Truth on Voting Restrictions
[Brennan Center for Justice]


(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)