Voter Suppression – A Voting Tutorial – Part 2
By
John C Abercrombie
Voter suppression is a tactic that has a long history in many parts of the world. This post will concentrate on the United States of America. In particular the groups primarily targeted by the sophisticated tactics in place today.
From the early days, Blacks were guaranteed certain rights following the end of the American Civil War, however the losers of the war were always plotting ways to prevent the exercise of the voting rights gained by the passage of the 15th amendment.
We see those who were given free labor under the system of slavery were most resistant to granting Blacks the right to vote. After the war, many Blacks were elected to office and performed well, however there was strong resentment to giving up absolute power. The tactics were often physical violence and later laws to prevent the expression of rights granted to citizens.
Power has always been granted to White men to the exclusion of women of all races and many racial groups. There was even a push to make the right to vote only to landowners. This has not presented much of a problem today but was a pure power grab by the rich to run everything.
Some of the deadliest riots in America have been over the right of Blacks to vote.
Many Blacks have been slaughtered for exercising the right to vote. Many massacres, often called race riots, were the result of the attempt to vote. At the same time, because Whites were in control, there were other means to discourage voting, such as firing workers, many times distant relatives, neighbors etc. Anything to discourage the American Black from exercising existing rights.
We will now look at some of the more inconspicuous and sophisticated methods being employed today in attempt to prevent selected groups from exercising their rights.
The 15th Amendment gave voting rights to every MAN in America regardless of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Voting is under the control of local, county and state rather than federal control. After 1890 former Confederate states amended their state constitutions to disenfranchise Black voters.
Some of the more widely and known tactics included:
- Jim Crow Laws
- Poll taxes
- Residency Requirements
- Literacy Requirements
- Comprehension Tests
The efficiency of these measures can be seen in the example of Louisiana. Black citizens made up the majority of the population in 1900, yet only 5,320 were on the voter rolls and by 1920, the number was down to 730. In North Carolina there were NO Black voters on the rolls.
While there are many who claim voter suppression is still a problem and that problem disproportionately affects people of color, the elderly and the young. In 2008 there was an increase of almost five million voters compared to the 2004 election. This was a disturbing trend for those who had been opposed to making easier to exercise the voter’s rights as an American citizen.
Since 2010, twenty-five states have passed more restrictive voting laws making it more difficult to vote. Some of the measures enacted include:
- Stricter photo ID requirements
- Limited early voting
- Restrictions on voter registration
- Restrictions on restoring voting rights for past felons
These restrictive voting laws have a disparate impact on:
- People of color
- Senior citizens
- Poor people
- Disabled people
- Ill people and
- College students
Frequently Used Voter Suppression Tactics
There are three primary forms of state-sponsored voter suppression: The first makes it harder for people to register to vote. The second makes it harder for people to get to the polls. The third manipulates precinct boundaries to dilute or concentrate the vote for one party. There are also illegal voter suppression activities, like the destruction of voter registration cards.
Voter registration suppression examples include:
- Stricter voter ID laws such as accepting only certain kinds of IDs
- requiring certain kinds of documentation to get IDs, and requiring certain kinds of photos
- Residency requirements and address requirements
- “Intention to stay” requirements
- Restrictions on voter registration drives
- Elimination of Election Day voter registration
- Voter purges (when eligible voters are removed from voter rolls improperly, often without notice to voters)
- Felony disenfranchisement
Voting barrier examples include:
- Closing polling locations. Between 2012 and 2018, the state of Georgia closed or relocated 40% of voter precincts, impacting between 54,000 and 85,000 voters on election day 2018
- Barriers impeding disabled people
- Voter intimidation, such as armed observers in polling places
- Long lines caused by relocations and not enough equipment or personnel
The redefining of districts to control a political advantage, called Gerrymandering. This will be covered in more detail later in the series.
The majority of these problems was corrected with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act was one of the most impactful pieces of law passed during the civil rights movement.
The Voting Rights Act regulated elections and, more specifically:
- Banned the use of literacy tests as a requirement for voter registration
- Gave the federal government control of voter registration in areas where less than half of minorities were not registered to vote
- Permitted the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections (poll taxes were then banned in 1966 by the U.S. Supreme Court)
The new law was ignored in some areas of the South, but it did give Black voters a means to challenge voter suppression tactics in court, and voter turnout for Black voters increased from 6% in 1964 to 59% in 1969.
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act contains provisions that apply only to states or jurisdictions that were engaging in egregious voting discrimination to disenfranchise minority voters. It prevented state legislatures from implementing any laws, statutes, or practices that affected voting without prior approval from the U.S. Attorney General or the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The states or jurisdictions that were ordered to comply were identified by a “coverage formula,” which was extended in 1970 and again in 1975. It included nine states and parts of six other states.
In 2013, in the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, the coverage formula was ruled unconstitutional. Because it was almost 40 years old, it was determined to no longer reflect current conditions. Because Congress had failed to update the coverage formula, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was ruled unenforceable. This set off a myriad of legislation that had been prevented by the 1965 law and decimated the ability to vote in the states that were the greatest offenders.
A 2018 report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that since the Supreme Court ruling in 2013, the federal government has taken less action to protect voting rights for minorities.
Since 2013, there have been sixty-one lawsuits alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act, including four brought by the Justice Department.
COVID-19 has affected all aspects of life in 2020, including this year’s presidential election, set to take place on Nov. 3. Voting amid a pandemic creates its own risk of voter suppression, particularly if would-be voters are prevented from casting their ballots because they do not feel safe visiting polling places.
While some states sent out absentee ballots or applications to all voters during the primary elections in light of the coronavirus pandemic, many have stated that this invites voter fraud, a claim many argue is not backed by evidence. On the other side argue that too many restrictions on absentee voting will result in voter suppression.
A record-setting 186 lawsuits related to the 2020 general election and the coronavirus have been filed in forty-two states as of the beginning of August.
Lawsuits in Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri have asked courts to expand absentee voting as these states require a reason such as disability to avoid in-person voting. Only thirty-four states and the District of Columbia currently allow no-excuse absentee voting.
The rules around who can cast absentee ballots and how they can be cast will vary by state and jurisdiction. The best thing voters can do to protect their right to vote is to pay attention to local absentee voting requirements in the weeks and days leading up to the election to make sure their ballots are counted.
To see part 1 of this series, click this link.
Voting like life is not a spectator sport. Keep informed! Be Active!
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The History of Black Voter Suppression — And The Fight For The Right To Vote | NBC News
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter explains the voter suppression that Black voters have faced throughout the years, from activists fighting for the right to vote in 1965’s civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama to the long lines in 2020’s presidential primaries in Georgia.
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Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections (History in the Headlines Ser.)
Historians have long been engaged in telling the story of the struggle for the vote. In the wake of recent contested elections, the suppression of the vote has returned to the headlines, as awareness of the deep structural barriers to the ballot, particularly for poor, black, and Latino voters, has called attention to the historical roots of issues related to voting access.
Perhaps most notably, former state legislator Stacey Abrams’s campaign for Georgia’s gubernatorial race drew national attention after she narrowly lost to then-secretary of state Brian Kemp, who had removed hundreds of thousands of voters from the official rolls. After her loss, Abrams created Fair Fight, a multimillion-dollar initiative to combat voter suppression in twenty states.
ABH – Voter Suppression in US Elections
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How Voter Suppression Impacts Black Voters | Global Citizen Explains
The protests over police brutality against Black people is helping to inspire a new wave of Black civic engagement. One of the best ways to create change at all levels of society and have your voice heard is by voting. US Civil rights leaders of the past knew this and fought for decades to ensure Black people had the equal right to vote. But even now, there are still barriers for Black people who want to vote.
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One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
From the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of White Rage, the startling – and timely – history of voter suppression in America, with a foreword by Senator Dick Durbin.
In her New York Times best seller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice.
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Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement
How can citizens respond when the ideals of democracy come into conflict with the policies of government? Political scientist Erin O’Brien explores current efforts to restrict access to the ballot, through both legislative and judicial changes in states across the nation. Journalist Phillip Martin responds with examples from the Civil Rights Movement of citizen actions, including civil disobedience, that opened ballot access to previously disenfranchised African Americans.
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Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is considered one of the most effective pieces of legislation the United States has ever passed. It enfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters, particularly in the American South, and drew attention to the problem of voter suppression. Yet in recent years, there has been a continuous assault on access to the ballot box in the form of stricter voter ID requirements, meritless claims of rigged elections, and baseless accusations of voter fraud. In the past these efforts were aimed at eliminating African American voters from the rolls, and today, new laws seek to eliminate voters of color, the poor, and the elderly, groups that historically vote for the Democratic Party.
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This is How Voter Suppression Impacts Black Voters | OWN Your Vote | Oprah Winfrey Network
Voting rights activist and founder of Black Voters Matter LaTosha Brown explains the many ways in which voter suppression can take shape to target Black voters.
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The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of “The Big Lie” Audible Logo Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
When a seven-million-vote margin of victory and 306 electoral votes pointed to Joe Biden as the victor in the 2020 Presidential Election, Trump-fueled conspiracy theories exploded.
In The Big Truth, CBS’s Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett and the nation’s foremost elections expert David Becker completely upend The Big Lie that has infected the Far Right with firsthand stories of election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, election director Thomas Freitag. And they reveal the concrete evidence proving that 2020 may have been the most secure US election ever.
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Jim Crow Redux: Georgia GOP Governor Signs “Egregious” Voter Suppression Law Targeting Black Voters
Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp has signed a sweeping elections bill that civil rights groups are blasting as the worst voter suppression legislation since the Jim Crow era. The bill grants broad power to state officials to take control of election management from local and county election boards. It also adds new voter ID requirements, severely limits mail-in ballot drop boxes, rejects ballots cast in the wrong precinct and allows conservative activists to challenge the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters. Since the 2020 election, Republican state lawmakers have introduced over 250 bills in 43 states to limit voter access. The elections bill is “extremely egregious” in its restriction of voting rights, says journalist Anoa Changa. “They’re continuing to put processes in place that reinforce these narratives that … have long existed within the Republican toolkit to help get their base fearful in terms of what might come in terms of Black voters and other voters of color.”
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d Scientists. To see those posts, click here.
For Black History Month 2022 we focused on “Health and Wellness”. To see the entire seriTo see the full listing of post (over 250 and counting), click on our Blog list
This post is part of a mini-series on Voting. To see part 1 click this link.
For Black History Month 2020, we posted daily. These posts focus on the reality of Black life in America after thThise Civil War culminating in the landmark Brown v Board of Education that changed so many of the earlier practices. To see the posts, click here
For Black History Month 2021, we focused on Black Medical Achievements, Inventors anes, click this link.
For Women’s History Month 2022 we introduced you to 31 amazing Black women we should all know. To see the entire series, click this link.
We also posted a 5 part mini-series on the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific massacres in the history of America. Hundreds of Blacks were slaughtered and 10,000 left homeless in this largely unknown event. To see the posts, click here.
We also did a mini-series on the Schomburg Center for Research a most amazing collection of Black history and culture. To see this mini-series, click here
The Schomburg Center
A world class collection of Black History inspired by a 5th grade teacher who told Arturo Schomburg that there was NO African history. Nothing of value. Schomburg dedicated his life to proving that teacher wrong and Schomburg did an amazing job with his collection.
Schomburg – The man who built a library
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Voter suppression is one of the oldest tools used by the powerful to control others, it has grown in sophistication, but there are ways to defeat it as long as we have a democratic government. It must be protected, and it is possible only if we take action to protect it. Arm yourself with knowledge and action to protect it or your children and grandchildren will not have it during their lifetime. It is worth protecting. Don’t experience the embarrassment of having your grandchildren ask what you did and your response is nothing, I had to watch my show.
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