When Virginia made it easier to vote, who won? Republicans

Glenn Youngkin’s inauguration as Virginia’s new Republican governor is drawing near, but his defeated opponent, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, has yet to shout: “Stop the steal.”

Republicans must be wondering why. After all, a certain former Republican president is still claiming the 2020 presidential race he lost by more than 7 million votes was stolen from him. Six in 10 Republicans agree.

The Virginia governor’s race was far more open than the presidential one. It was conducted under a host of new rules that Republicans say encourage election fraud. With Democrats in control, Virginia recently made it easier to vote, especially when voting by mail or early in person. Yet since Youngkin scored a narrow victory, nary a Republican has looked askance at the result.

It’s obvious why. Republicans won.

But the GOP should not be allowed to pocket the Virginia result as fair while denying President Biden’s win, blocking the For The People Act’s election reforms in Congress and passing dozens of state-level bills that narrow access to voting. Meanwhile, people sympathetic to President Trump’s claims of election fraud are trying to stock election oversight offices with his backers, supposedly to guard against manipulation of results.

On Monday, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill barring private groups from contributing money to help underfunded state and local boards of elections conduct elections. Sen. Paul Newton, co-chair of the Senate Elections Committee and a sponsor of the bill, said “Private interests paying for vote collection and counting raises natural suspicions about election integrity.”

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear whether North Carolina legislative leaders can intervene in a lawsuit challenging the state’s voter ID law. Republicans say their intervention is needed because Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein may not aggressively defend the measure.

These moves come after years of Republican attempts in North Carolina and nationally to narrow access to the vote to prevent a threat of fraud that is all but nonexistent.

The hollowness of Republican fears was plain in the Virginia result. The turnout was historically high for a gubernatorial election, yet Republicans won their first statewide race since 2009 and took back control of the House of Delegates.

Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., told me, “The result in Virginia suggests that the Republican effort to block expanding voter turnout is probably not the best place to focus. Making it easier for voters to participate helps both parties. That’s the lesson from Virginia.”

Consider the election law changes that Virginia Democrats put in place and the contrast with the measures North Carolina Republicans have taken.

• Virginia repealed its voter photo ID requirement in 2020. North Carolina Republicans pushed to have a voter photo ID requirement added to the state Constitution. Voters approved the change, but it has been suspended pending court challenges.

• Virginia’s early voting period was extended from one week to 45 days before the election, one of the longest periods in the nation. In North Carolina, it’s 17 days.

• Rules for curbside voting were eased and absentee voters had multiple ways to return ballots, including drop boxes in some locations. North Carolina does not allow drop boxes.

Republicans think the meaning of the Virginia governor’s race is that Republicans can win suburban voters even in blue states with the right mix of issues – and less of former President Trump’s divisiveness.

That’s true, but the race also contained another message: Don’t be afraid of democracy. Opening access to the vote can be good for Republicans, too.

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-829-4512, or nbarnett@ news observer.com