Voter Suppression

Voter suppression is a rampant issue plaguing the United States currently, It is any legal or extralegal measure or strategy designed to reduce voting by members of a targeted group. Voter suppression has been present throughout United States History and has primarily affected African Americans. During Reconstruction, African Americans gained new rights under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. For a brief period of time they were able to exercise their right to vote; run for local, state, and federal offices; and serve on juries. The Republican Party criminalized the terrorist activities of the Ku Klux Klan and authorized federal troops to protect polling stations to protect African Americans. All of these measures enabled African Americans to elect hundreds of African American state representatives and 16 African American U.S. representatives and senators.

However, with the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Southern states began reacting against African American’s new right to vote with laws such as poll taxes, comprehension tests, good character tests, and grandfather clauses. Grandfather clauses were implemented by seven Southern states between 1895 and 1910. They were more subtle attempts to deny African Americans the right to vote and stipulated that those that enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1866 and 1867 and their lineal descendants would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting. The Fifteenth Amendment wasn’t adopted until 1870, so few if any African Americans would be exempted from the requirements. African Americans were also unlikely to be able to meet the education, property, or tax requirements so they were effectively excluded from voting for many years. Another factor that prevented African Americans from voting was voter intimidation. When the Republican Party pulled out of the South in 1877, the Ku Klux Klan was free to terrorize and intimidate African Americans.

Some improvement came in 1915 when the Supreme Court declared the grandfather clause was unconstitutional as well as in 1962 when the Twenty-Fourth Amendment was passed, outlawing poll taxes in federal elections. However, it was not until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed under Lyndon B Johnson, that Congress officially put an end to the grandfather clause. The Act also made the Fifteenth Amendment enforceable by abolishing voter prerequisites and allowing for federal supervision of federal registration. Section 5 of the Act required that certain jurisdictions obtain prior approval to any change in their electoral laws or procedures. Section 4(b) identified covered jurisdictions (ones in which the preclearance requirements would apply) as any state or political subdivision of a state that, as of November 1964, imposed tests or other devices as pre-requirements to registration or voting and was characterized by voter registration or turnout below 50% of the voting-age population. The Voting Rights Act preclearance requirements were useful in preventing jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination from introducing new discriminatory legislation. For a time, African American voting registration greatly increased.

However, the 2013 Supreme Court decision Shelby County v. Holder declared that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Acts was unconstitutional. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that Section 4 of the Act imposes current burdens that are no longer needed. The constraints in the section made sense in the 1960s and 1970s, but did not anymore and now represent a violation of the power to regulate elections reserved for the states. The Court’s decision rendered the preclearance requirements of the Voting Rights Act inoperative and formerly covered jurisdictions were free to implement whatever electoral laws and procedures they chose.

Unsurprisingly, soon after the Shelby County decision was made, states announced new electoral restrictions and procedures that would have been blocked by the preclearance requirement. Numerous voting laws were introduced that included voter ID laws, voter registration restrictions, voter purges, etc.

These measures persist to this day. As of now, a total of 36 states have varying identification requirements. Advocates of these laws believe that identification prevents in-person voter impersonation and fraud. Opponents argue that there is little fraud of this kind and that voter ID laws burden voters, ultimately restricting the right to vote. Over 21 million U.S. citizens do not have government-issued photo identification. ID cards are not accessible for everyone. They can be costly or they are free but applicants must incur other expenses to obtain the documents necessary for an ID.

Voter registration restrictions can include requiring documents to prove identification, limiting the window of time for registration, etc. Some states require people to register long before an election such as New York which requires voters to register at least 25 days before the election.

Voter purges involve removing people to voter rolls. This is usually done when people move, die, or become ineligible to vote for other reasons. However, states can use this process to purge eligible voters from rolls for illegitimate reasons or inaccurate data, and often without adequate notice to voters. A Brennan Center study found that almost 16 million voters were purged from rolls from 2014 to 2016 and that jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination had significantly higher purge rates.

Gerrymandering is the practice of redrawing the boundaries of electoral districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage. Every 10 years states redraw district lines supposedly to account for population changes and racial diversity. Too often though, states use redistricting as a political tool. There are two main forms of gerrymandering: cracking and packing. Cracking is diluting the power of the opposing party by spreading the party’s supporters across many districts in small numbers. Packing is concentrating the opposing party’s voters in one district.

Conclusion

Even if some groups are more disproportionately affected than others, voter suppression is a serious issue that everyone should care about. Democracy as a whole is weakened when the vote is not accessible for all.

How to Protect Voting Rights

States need to enact measures that encourage voting rather than suppress it. Automatic, online, and same-day voter registration encourages voting and reduces the chance of error. Early voting also helps people who have travel or accessibility issues to participate. To ensure that states enforce protections of the Voting Rights Act, citizens can contact senators to advocate for the Voting Rights Act that was partially crippled in 2013. Citizens should also try their best to be informed about voting requirements and rights. By taking these measures, the right to vote can become more accessible for all.

References

ACLU. (2020). Block the vote: Voter suppression in 2020. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020/

Britannica. (n.d.). Grandfather clause. In Britannica.com encyclopedia. Retrieved June 8, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/grandfather-clause

Britannica. (n.d.). Voter suppression. In Britannica.com encyclopedia. Retrieved June 8, 2021, from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/voter-suppression

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2021). Voter identification requirements | Voter ID laws. NCSL.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx

Oyez. (2012). Shelby County v. Holder. Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96