Democracy in doubt: voter suppression in the U.S.
Why, this time around, it is not Russian interference that poses the greatest threat to America’s electoral process.
Source: Flickr
Voter suppression in the United States is not new; in 2020, attempts at suppression cast a shadow over one of the most polarising elections in the country’s history.
The U.S. constitution does not guarantee its citizens the right to vote, contrary to its status as one of the great democracies of the world. In reality, it ranks second-to-last in electoral integrity compared to other liberal democracies. The lack of voting rights in the constitution has defined the centuries that followed, and in the 2020 election, voter suppression has come to the foreground yet again.
Before the Reconstruction period, voting was reserved for wealthy white landowners. However, the 15th Amendment, passed in 1870, protected all male citizens’ right to vote regardless of race. However, with Democrat control of government, states were able to suppress black voters by using methods such as literacy tests, poll taxes and intimidation by white supremacist groups such as the KKK, as there was no federal legislation to prevent this.
In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, an achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. It outlawed these methods of voter suppression, guaranteeing voting rights for all. It ensured federal oversight in states where less than 50 per cent of the non-white population had registered to vote, and investigated the use of discriminatory measures in elections. This led to huge increases in black voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, the vote increased from just 6 per cent of the black population voting in 1964 to 59 per cent in 1969.
However, in 2013 the Shelby County v Holder supreme court ruling deemed the Voting Rights Act in its current form was no longer a necessity, undermining its power. Since then, states have been able to put in place discriminatory measures unchallenged. There have been 1,688 polling place closures in states which were previously protected by the 1965 Act, often to limit Democrat voters in Republican states. Voter ID laws have been put in place in many states, despite being proven to discriminate against marginalised groups who are more likely to lack government-issued photo ID.
One example of these measures in place is in Texas. The state prevents people from using mail-in voting, even during the election, unless they are 65 or older or have a pre-existing condition. It also doesn’t allow citizens to register to vote online, making it much more difficult for people to vote. In September, its Republican government passed a law limiting each county to one polling place, meaning in one majority Democrat county, there is only one place to vote for 2.4 million registered voters.
U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed that wider voter participation would mean “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again”. Marginalised groups who are prevented from voting will often vote Democrat: it works in the Republican Party’s favour to suppress voters. This year, Trump faces record numbers of mail-in voters due to the Covid-19 pandemic. His response was to claim that mail-in voting would lead to fraud, despite no evidence to prove this, and has even tried to prevent funding for the U.S. Postal Service to limit voting by mail. Rather than mail-in ballots being vulnerable to fraud, the real problem is that small errors in the filling out of the ballots due to the unfamiliar format will lead them to be discounted. Data analysis shows that first-time, non-white voters are twice as likely to have their mail votes discounted than first-time white voters.
Furthermore, Trump has refused to say that he will leave office if he loses the presidential election, showing a fundamental disregard for democracy. It is likely he will challenge the outcome if he loses by a small margin. This would be a wildly inappropriate course of action with such a politicised Supreme Court, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats on the court 6-3.
Disenfranchisement is imperative to a Republican victory, as the more people who turn out to vote, the less likely Trump is to win. So far, there has been a record voter turnout, as 73 million people had voted early as of October 30, showing a determination in this election to undermine Trump’s attempts to suppress voting. But despite one of the highest election turnouts, there is still a silent population of disenfranchised voters. In the 2020 election, voting has become an act of defiance, especially a vote for the Democrats.