Universal Vote-by-Mail Wasn’t an Option Until White People Needed It
Universal Vote-by-Mail and the Coronavirus
By now you’ve probably heard of efforts to move towards universal vote-by-mail for the 2020 election. Of course, this shift doesn’t just come from nowhere and stems from a public health perspective.
With concerns about the coronavirus impacting crowded polling locations, it only makes sense to reduce the risks of in-person voting. Giving every voter the option to cast their votes through the mail is something that has been gaining popularity as the solution to this issue. According to a Pew poll from April, 70% of Americans support allowing all voters to have access to mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.
The rise in popularity for this voting method comes at a time when more people are worried about their safety voting. It is a reform that is much needed in the United States, but it shouldn’t have taken this long for this idea to reach the mainstream. While some voters are just discovering that voting could be dangerous, for many Americans this has been the reality ever since they started voting.
The History of Voter Intimidation
Voter intimidation is defined as intimidating, threatening, or coercing someone to interfere with their right to vote. It could take many forms including blocking polling places or aggressively questioning voters on their citizenship, criminal record, or political affiliation.
In the United States, voter intimidation has a long and prejudiced history. In the years following the passing of the 15th amendment, intimidation was used as a final tactic to suppress the vote of Black Americans who were able to bypass literacy tests, poll taxes, and other systematic tactics of voter suppression. White voters and officials would threaten Black voters’ access to different services or use violence to prevent them from voting.
As is the case with many of the white supremacist systems that were set up throughout the United States’ history, voter intimidation is still alive and well in 2020. It is a concern that Black and Brown, immigrant, Muslim, and LGBTQIA+ voters need to worry about at the different stages of the voting process.
Election Protection reported that during the 2018 mid-term election, 4% of all of their calls about voting concerns were about intimidation. 55% of the total calls came from voters identifying as Black, Latino, or Hispanic.
Intimidation could directly or indirectly put these voters’ physical safety at risk as they engage in the political process.
Black voters have had fears for their safety ever since they started voting after the 15th amendment was ratified. Universal vote-by-mail could have been used nationally as an option for any voter who wanted it or who didn’t feel safe going to polling locations.
However, it took a pandemic that could potentially infect anyone on election day for it to become a possibility. Now that white voters are scared for their safety, they care about reforms that could make the process better for everyone.
Our government can’t continue waiting for white people to be impacted before they change systems that are hurting groups within our country. No one should need to fear for their safety when voting.
