The premise that expanding voting access helps Democrats and restricting access helps Republicans is “a fundamental mistake,” D. Sunshine Hillygus, a Sanford School of Public Policy professor specializing in voting behavior, said during a virtual media briefing this week. The proposed voter restriction laws in statehouses across the country follow a presidential election cycle that witnessed one of the largest voter turnouts in American history, with people of color and young voters providing decisive margins that turned Donald Trump into a one-term occupant of the White House and awarded U.S. Senate seats to Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in what was once reliably red Georgia.