This is nothing new. I can’t for the life of me remember who it was that told Republicans, I think it was at a conference of some sort, in the 80’s, (and it wasn’t Lee Atwater), he said that society was moving away from the Repub/Conservative ideology and that the only way to win now (meaning then and into the future) was to minimize voting in every way possible. I.e. the more people that vote, the less chance Repubs/Cons have to win. Boy I wish I could remember his name.
Point is, the current efforts are the culmination, not the starting point, of voter suppression.