Voter suppression as an electoral strategy of 2024 Presidential Election

This chapter analyzes voter suppression and gerrymandering as electoral strategies in the 2024 Presidential Election. The Supreme Court has, in recent years, significantly altered the legal framework governing the administration of elections in ways that appear to facilitate increased voter suppression by state legislatures. Exploiting the opportunities created by the Court, Republican-controlled states have enacted a substantial number of more restrictive election laws and initiated legal challenges contesting rules or procedures designed to expand ballot access. Under the pretext of a counterfactual narrative of stolen elections and the pretense of enhancing electoral integrity, state policymakers have pursued an overtly partisan agenda aimed at consolidating political power by deterring certain groups of eligible voters from participating in the electoral process. In the new Republican playbook compiled by President Donald Trump in 2020, voter suppression and gerrymandering interact with disinformation and other manipulation tactics. The ultimate goal of the playbook appears to be to create opportunities for Republicans in state legislatures, in Congress, and, ultimately, in the White House, to corrupt democratic institutions in ways that manipulate the electoral playing field in their favor and to facilitate an outright subversion of electoral results.