I’m curious because I hear this argument a lot, but I’m interested in how it actually works.
I understand how US republicans wanting to push for voter ID laws affects minorities’ access to voting. I just don’t get how early voting affects the democratic voting base but not the republican voters?
The short version is that anything that increases voting “friction” hurts the Democrats more. Their base are young people with terrible jobs that force them to work on voting day, while the Rebublican base is retired folk with all the time in the world.
Also, the youth are lazy and/or apathetic, so reducing their options will cause some of them to stay at home.
That’s obviously a massive exaggeration, but there’s enough truth to it that it has an effect. Elections are won by small margins.
I remember in Florida the issue was apparent when the ballot became very long due to candidates and issues to be voted on. It was bad for regular voters but worse for minorities that had to read a lot and it delayed voting in poor areas.
Had early voting not been available it would had been worse. And there is usually one party the one that wants to make it worse so as to see more delays making less votes to come from the “wrong” kind of people when election day comes.
African-Americans also have a tradition called “Souls to the Polls” where after Church on Sunday as the election nears, Churches will bus congregants to the polls to ensure turnout (mostly for electing local candidates, but it affects statewide and national results, too. That’s why so many red states are banning weekend voting, too.
Also, reducing the time frame makes the standard GOP tactic of allocating insufficient voting facilities to precincts infested with “those people” more effective, by removing a factor that ameliorates the resulting long lines.