In 2021, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 202 (SB 202) into law mere months after former President Joe Biden flipped the state in the presidential election. Amid the uproar of unproven voter fraud allegations, many Republican states worked to pass voting laws to deal with what they saw as fraud. However, many activists have claimed that these laws, such as SB 202, suppress voters — and particularly minority voters.
Now, in 2025, we’re seeing just how SB 202 impacted the 2024 election. According to new data, Georgia’s anti-voting laws massively affected Black, Asian American Pacific Islander, and Latinx voters. Voters with disabilities were also negatively affected.
During the 2020 election, 29% of Black voters used mail ballots. In 2024, this fell to 5%. The same was seen among Asian American voters, as data has shown that mail ballot votes in this demographic fell from 40% to 7%. Meanwhile, mail ballot votes among Latino voters fell from 23% to 3%.
Data has also shown that Black voters were much more likely to have their provisional ballots thrown out completely, thanks to these new voting laws dealing with out-of-precinct voting. Unfortunately, by looking at this data, one can see exactly where America is heading.
Republicans Push for More Anti-Voting Laws
When President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, he was the first to claim that voting fraud occurred. As the GOP has proved time and time again, they won’t go up against Trump — even when he’s spouting baseless claims about a stolen election.
Anti-voting laws, such as SB 202, soon followed. Now, many Republican states seem even more intent on changing voter laws to suppress minority votes. Sometimes, this is done through similar bills to SB 202. Other times, the GOP has worked to dilute minority votes through the redrawing of congressional maps. The Supreme Court may soon hear a case regarding redistricting, and it doesn’t look good for voter rights.
At the very least, these anti-voting laws are making all Americans face difficulties when trying to vote. For example, after restrictive voting laws in Texas were passed, research found that Texans were less likely to vote for at least two years after their ballot was rejected.
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How the GOP Uses Voting Laws & Redrawn Maps to Win
Trump is obsessed with winning — and so is the GOP. Since reentering the White House, Trump has talked about running again in 2028, a move that would be illegal. Meanwhile, he has also pushed for Republican states like Texas to redraw their maps to make sure that more Republicans win House seats come the midterm elections.
Texas has already done what Trump has ordered. Elected Republicans want an overwhelming majority in Congress to easily pass whatever Trump wants. With these redrawn maps, as well as these anti-voting laws that have become the norm, Republicans are setting it up so that they’ll overwhelmingly win in November 2026.
Throughout all of this manipulation, the GOP is hurting Americans’ constitutional right to vote. So far, and rather unfortunately, neither the courts nor the Democratic Party has been successful at stopping them.
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