{"id":1573,"date":"2020-10-28T17:18:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T17:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2021-10-10T15:16:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T15:16:18","slug":"the-corruption-of-democracy-how-voter-suppression-is-occurring-in-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1573","title":{"rendered":"The corruption of democracy: how voter suppression is occurring in the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>7 Minute, 21 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

On October 12th<\/sup>, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia, Johnta Austin tweeted<\/a> about his eleven-hour wait to vote early in the Presidential Election. Austin\u2019s experience was far from an isolated incident. Since early voting for the 2020 election began in mid-September the United States has been plagued<\/a> with reports of long waiting times to vote in-person. This is symptomatic of the widespread disfunction \u2013 and systematic disruption \u2013 of the US voting system which has been occurring in recent years. Why is this occurring, and who is it affecting the most? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voter suppression is defined as a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. Dr. Carol Anderson of Emory University states that<\/a> voter suppression is \u2018lethal to American democracy.\u2019 Long queues are just one symptom of voter suppression which is currently ongoing in the United States. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013 the Republican-majority US Supreme Court decided\nthat<\/a> the 1976 Voting Rights Act was outdated. This act, previously, had\nidentified states which had a history of discriminatory voter suppression and\nrequired them to gain federal approval before altering aspects of voting \u2013 such\nas Voter ID Laws and Poll Closures \u2013 to ensure that no discrimination was\noccurring. Almost immediately after the court\u2019s decision discriminatory voting\nacts were passed in a variety of states. By striking down the act as unconstitutional\nthe Supreme Court \u2018gutted\u2019<\/a>\nvoting rights across the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outdated Voting Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the United Kingdom, the voting method of choice in\nthe US is the voting machine. These electronically record and store the votes\nof citizens which allows for a faster count of votes and, arguably, is a\nsimpler and more streamlined voting experience. However, these machines have made\nelection day headlines on multiple occasions as they fail to properly perform\ntheir functions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012 life imitated art when a voting machine in Pennsylvania switched a vote from Obama to Romney, reminiscent of a sketch in The Simpsons.<\/em><\/a> Again, in 2018, voters in Texas similarly reported<\/a> machines that appeared to be switching their votes. With the majority of voting machines lacking connection to the internet, the accusation of hacking is unlikely to be well-founded. Instead, research suggests that the issue with voting machines instead lies in the length of time they have been in use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Assessing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2016 the Brennan Centre for Justice reported that<\/a> 42 states were using machines which were more than a decade old for the Presidential election, with 14 of these states having at least some machines that were over 15 years old. Similar data can be seen in the figure above<\/a> by ProPublica where the counties in pale green, in 2016, were using machines purchased in 2008 or prior. Malfunctioning machines have been reported<\/a> to cause long lines to vote across numerous states, and the phenom of machines \u2018changing votes\u2019 can be attributed to calibration issues with old voting equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unpredictable waiting times mean that voting can be difficult to schedule around work and other commitments such as parenting. The effect of broken machines on the electorate is constantly being researched. Following the 2012 election, the Caltech\/MIT Voting Technology Project, \u2018Waiting in Line to Vote\u2019<\/em>, estimated<\/a> that between 500,000 to 700,000 people did not vote due to long wait times at polling stations. The question to be asked is whether one particular group of the electorate is affected more than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparisons between polling locations reported to have long\nwait times in the Primary Presidential elections of this year and the\npercentage of non-white voters within the counties they served, the correlation is\nclear.<\/a> People of Colour have been disproportionately affected by excessive\nqueues for voting in recent elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voter ID Laws<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 36 states<\/a> request for voters to show identification at the polls. Of these, seven states are classified as having \u2018strict\u2019 laws. This means that only specific government-issued IDs are accepted in order for a citizen to cast their vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In England and Wales, around 76% of the population hold a UK passport and only 17% of the population holds no passport at all. In the United States, only 42% of citizens hold passports. While Voter ID laws are not present in the UK, this comparison demonstrates how possession of government ID is less common in the United States. More than 21 million<\/a> Americans hold no form of government-issued photo ID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core issue with voter ID requirements is the costs associated with gaining ID. It is estimated that obtaining an ID in the US can cost between<\/a> $75 to $175 dollars. This isolates lower-income Americans who lack the finances required for ID. Additionally, individuals with disabilities, the elderly, and low-income individuals can struggle to travel to ID offices which, in extreme cases, can be up to 170 miles<\/a> away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BAME voters are more likely to lack the ID necessary to vote. Across the US, 25%<\/a> of voting age African-American citizens do not have a government-issued ID, in comparison to only 8% of whites. Additionally, a Caltech\/MIT study<\/a> found that minority voters are more likely to be questioned about ID than white voters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voter ID laws are the core example of how discriminatory voter suppression is being achieved in the US. Under the guise of the argument that such laws prevent voter fraud \u2013 which is a non-issue<\/a> in the USA \u2013 these measures continue to be supported in legislatures across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling Closures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circling back to the symptom of long waiting times to vote\nbrings up the issue of polling closures. Since the Supreme Court ruling in\n2013, over 1,000 polling stations were closed, research in\n2019<\/a> discovered. These closures were concentrated in Republican-led states\nwith Texas, Arizona, and Georgia having the greatest number of closures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poll closures force individuals to travel further to vote\nand forces a greater number of individuals to vote in the same locations, leading\nto the queues experienced by Johnta Austin and many others. Decreased\naccessibility to voting reduces turnout, which is already chronically\nlow<\/a> in many of the states where poll closures have occurred in the highest\nfrequency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closure of polls is not random. This legislation targets ethnic minority voters much like voter ID laws. When studying Poll closures in Texas, the University of Houston found that more voting locations were closed in Latinx neighborhoods than in non-Latinx ones. Ultimately this results in voters of these communities being more likely to see voting as inaccessible and their votes are lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voter suppression is a complex and ongoing issue in the United States. It does not end with the areas addressed above; other methods include voter registration restrictions, voter purges, and felony disenfranchisement, to name a few. All of these methods aim to restrict ethnic minorities from casting votes across the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After beginning in the Supreme Court, voter suppression\ncontinues in legislatures across the country and until recently has fallen\nunder the radar of many voters. Coronavirus, which brought a focus onto the\npossibility of mail-in voting and increased early voting for the 2020\nPresidential election campaign, changed this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 2020 election campaign, President Trump suggested<\/a>\nthat widespread voter fraud would be the only reason for his potential loss of\nthe election. Since taking office in 2016, the United States has become an\nincreasingly hostile environment for minorities, and this stands true for\nvoting rights. The unofficial disenfranchisement of US citizens has been\nconsistent and unacceptable; however, it is finally being noticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of voter suppression has been highlighted in the\nlead up to the 2020 election. In September 2020 Biden\u2019s campaign began\npreparations<\/a> for potential legal battles concerning voting issues in the\nelection. Additionally, despite all the efforts against widespread voting, the\n2020 election is predicted to have the highest\nvoter turnout<\/a> in the USA since 1908.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters across the US have already begun to wait in line, while socially distanced and wearing masks, to cast their vote following a politically divisive year. Voter suppression, it seems, has failed in many aspects to achieve what it intended. Instead of preventing electorate knowledge of voter suppression awareness has spread and led to what seems to be a renewed determination on behalf of the electorate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these positive developments, voter suppression is an issue that must urgently be legally remedied. Hope for this seems dashed after the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as President Trump has nominated<\/a> a Conservative replacement for her seat. With such voter suppression laws in place democracy in the US is being corrupted from the inside-out. The United States cannot continue to claim to be one of the greatest democracies in the world until it treats voting as an irremovable human right.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Eloise Norris<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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