This is How Republicans Win

Stacey Abrams ended her campaign for governor of Georgia, but made no concession.

[M]ore than a million citizens found their names stripped from the rolls by the secretary of state, including a 92-year-old civil rights activist who had cast her ballot in the same neighborhood since 1968. Tens of thousands hung in limbo, rejected due to human error and a system of suppression that had already proven its bias. The remedy, they were told, was simply to show up. Only they, like thousands of others, found polling places shut down, understaffed, ill-equipped, or simply unable to serve its basic function for lack of a power cord. Students drove hours to hometowns because mismanagement prevented absentee ballots from arriving on time. Parents stood in the fitful rain in four-hour lines, watching as other voters had to abandon democracy in favor of keeping their jobs and collecting a paycheck. Eligible voters were refused ballots because poll workers didn't think they had enough paper to go around. Ballots were rejected by the handwriting police. Citizens tried to exercise their constitutional rights and were still denied the right to elect their leaders.

Under the watch of the now-former secretary of state, Democracy failed Georgia.

Update (November 27):  Abrams has filed a lawsuit over voter suppression in the 2018 election.

Update (November 29):  An additional lawsuit charges that Georgia's election system is unconstitutional.

Update (December 3):  Republicans have a new tactic:  Change the rules when you do lose an election.

Wisconsin Republicans moved quickly Monday with a rare lame-duck session that would change the 2020 presidential primary date to benefit a conservative Supreme Court justice and weaken the newly elected Democratic governor and attorney general.

Update (December 5):  They have no shame. And Wisconsin is not the only state involved. Stealing ballots isn't enough in North Carolina. And Michigan is trying "to gut a bill that would’ve raised the state’s minimum wage and given workers access to paid sick leave".

Update (December 7):  Scott Bateman illustrates how democracy works.

Update (March 22, 2019):  A Wisconsin judge has blocked a package of laws passed to weaken incoming Democratic officials after the 2018 election.

Update (July 14, 2019):  Even when Democrats control the entire state government, Republicans still find a way.

Update (August 30, 2019):  The House Oversight Committee is investigating an unusual pattern of undervotes in the Georgia Lt. Governor's election last year. Andrew O'Hehir explains that there's a typical "drop-off" in votes since people tend to be less interested in lower offices up for election. But, going against the trend, Lt. Governor had greater drop-off than lower contests. And:

An analysis by the Democratic data-tracking firm TargetSmart found that the drop-off "grew even more extreme in precincts with large African American populations".

Update (September 12, 2019):  The slimy North Carolina Republicans thought it would be clever to override a veto by scheduling a vote while most Democrats were at a 9/11 memorial.

In a stunning display of contempt for democracy, House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, called a surprise vote to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget just after a session opened at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Democratic lawmakers and the media had been told by Republican leaders that there would be no vote in the morning.

Update (June 13, 2020):  While other states seem to be figuring out how to expand voting by mail, Georgia had major problems with its primary this year. Andrea Young:

The ACLU warned that insufficient resources were allocated for polling places, machines, in-person election staff, and staff to process absentee ballots and that this would result in the disenfranchisement of voters in 2020. It gives us no pleasure to be proven right.

Whether it is incompetence or intentional voter suppression, the result is the same—Georgians denied their rights as citizens in this democracy.

And now Republicans are worried suppression will be "weaponized". 

Democratic turnout among white and black voters was high in this week’s elections, even in predominantly GOP precincts. They fear it could reach historic levels in November if Democrats manage to demonize Republicans as actively suppressing minorities from voting.