United States | Election daze

Why stricter voting laws no longer help Republicans

The party is pushing tougher requirements anyway

A Donald Trump supporter holds an umbrella with a US flag on.
Photograph: Getty Images
|ATLANTA|5 min read

“The Republicans should pray for rain”—the title of a paper published by a trio of political scientists in 2007—has been an axiom of American elections for years. The logic was straightforward: each inch of election-day showers, the study found, dampened turnout by 1%. Lower turnout gave Republicans an edge, because the party’s affluent electorate had the resources to vote even when it was inconvenient. Their opponents, less so.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Election daze”

From the June 7th 2025 edition

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