June 13, 2018

Supreme Court decision abets voter suppression

located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

Earlier this week, in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s policy of purging voters from the rolls. Ohio, an important swing state, currently removes eligible voters from the rolls if they fail to respond to mailers sent by election officials seeking to confirm their residency status and did not vote in two subsequent elections. The Court’s decision stirred a visceral backlash of citizens, judges, and government officials from across the country who oppose Ohio’s blatant infringement on voting rights, which since 2011 has resulted in roughly two million residents being purged from the ballots.

The policy’s opponents also stress that what appears to be an attempt by Republicans to avoid voter fraud is in fact a deliberate move to discriminate against low income and minority groups and restrict their access to the voting process, noting, for instance, that in Ohio’s largest three districts, African Americans are affected by the law at twice the rate of whites.

Ohio, however, is not alone in imposing stringent restrictions on voting rights of minorities and the poor. Presently, twenty three states adopted tougher voting suppression tactics, among which are excluding voters from rolls (as enacted in Ohio and Florida, for instance), eliminating early and same day registration, and requiring voters to present a state ID or passport in order to cast a ballot (a practice that bluntly discriminates against black and Hispanic voters, many of whom do not possess government issued identification). Another method widely known to suppress voting rights across the country is the illegal, yet tacitly condoned practice of redrawing voting districts (also referred to as ‘gerrymandering’). By isolating areas populated predominantly by minority groups and poor voters and clumping them into one congressional district, officials in Republican states effectively limit the impact of such residents and ensure they will possess only few seats (in some cases as little as one) in the local government.

Following Monday’s decision, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (who voted against the upholding of the policy), claimed the purging of votes, and the Court’s approval of it, violate the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which sought to ease the access of historically disenfranchised and discriminated groups to the voting process. Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “Congress enacted the [National Voter Registration Act] against the backdrop of substantial efforts by States to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters, including programs that purged eligible voters from registration lists because they failed to vote in prior elections...The Court errs in ignoring this history and distorting the statutory text … ultimately sanctioning the very purging that Congress expressly sought to protect against[.]”

As the 2018 midterm elections loom, and Red states, now backed up by the Supreme Court, scurry to ensure their desired outcome by suppressing the voting rights of targeted groups, various organisations and citizen-led initiatives seek to combat such attacks on democracy and promote a fair and equal voting environment. One such group is Let America Vote, an NGO that engages in online and grassroots organising in order to energise and unify voters in their local communities, as well as spread information regarding politicians who engage in voting suppression, thus making it harder for them to get elected. Spread the Vote is an organisation comprised of volunteers who assist eligible voters to obtain the government identification required in order to cast a ballot. They operate in various states in which voter suppression is a pressing problem: Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. Spread The Vote also runs a nationwide programme that hires Campus Ambassadors who assist college students (a group particularly vulnerable to voter suppression) to gain access to the polls and vote.  

While the Supreme Court has enabled Republican states to pursue and expand voting policies that discriminate against the poor and minority groups, considerable efforts take place to combat such infringements on Americans’ basic rights. It is thus crucial to pay close attention to policy changes and unscrupulous actions taken by lawmakers in this sphere, and inquire about local and national initiatives designed to protect the rights of fellow voters.