Actor and former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemingly offered to pay to reopen closed polling locations in the South.
Schwarzenegger made the suggestion on his personal Twitter account Wednesday.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I’m a fanatic about voting,” Schwarzenegger tweeted. “Most people call closing polls voter suppression. Some say it is ‘budgetary.’ What if I made it easy & solved the budgetary issue? How much would it cost to reopen polling places?”
This is a serious question. Is closing polling stations about making it harder for minorities to vote, or is it because of budgets? If you say it’s because of your budget, let’s talk.
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) September 2, 2020
“This is a serious question,” he added in another tweet. “Is closing polling stations about making it harder for minorities to vote, or is it because of budgets? If you say it’s because of your budget, let’s talk.” (RELATED: Watch Arnold Schwarzenegger And Jackie Chan In The Trailer For ‘The Iron Mask’)
Schwarzenegger also linked to an article in his first tweet titled, “Southern U.S. States Have Closed 1,200 Polling Places In Recent Years: Rights Group.” The article was published by Reuters on Sept. 9, 2019.
The article claimed that 1,200 polling places had closed since the Supreme Court voided a part of the Voting Rights Act back in 2013. The Supreme Court ruled the part of the law that decided which states required federal approval to change voting laws was unconstitutional, according to Fox News.
States who have closed polling places in minority areas have been accused of voter suppression. However, many state officials cited budget pressures and disability laws for reasons that the polling locations had closed, Reuters reported in 2019.