Voter Suppression In Full Effect: Part 2

What was once a problem in mostly Southern States is now a national issue.

Since the Supreme Court found Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional in 2013 voter suppression tactics have increased all over the country at an alarming rate.

For those unfamiliar with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, it was the section that required States with a history of racial discrimination to seek clearance from the Department of Justice when changing election laws. The 2013 ruling allowed many States, mostly Southern, to change their laws without the use of strict guidelines.

The last election in 2016, was the first official election in 50 years to be conducted without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.

Since then, many States have used the opportunity to suppress voting rights using many tactics. Voters have been purged from voter rolls, have been denied the right to register using trivial new rules, and polling places are being closed in poorer, largely minority voting districts and counties.

The problematic issue of closing polling places was discussed in Part 1 of this series (linked above) but another more pressing issue is that of purging voters from the voting rolls. While the word “purge” does have it’s negative connotations, no one would argue that removing those who have moved out of districts or that have passed away should be removed.

That’s not the issue.

The issue lies in election boards all over the country policing voter polls a little too aggressively. In my case, for instance, my wife and I have been purged from the voting rolls prior to every election since 2014. That means that we have had to reregister three times in the last three election cycles. Yes, prior to every election. There are other members of my family that have had this happen as well.

None of us have any convictions, and yes, despite our Hispanic names we are all legal. So you racists can shut the fuck up.

The problem, at least to me, it seems, is not only our last names but how we vote as well. It’s no secret that minorities have to jump through more hoops than our White counterparts just to simply exercise our rights. Many times, despite being registered voters, we are handed provisional ballots only to be informed by mail months later that our ballots weren’t counted.

Despite all that, WE STILL VOTE.

In every single election.

It’s no coincidence that these things have been happening with more frequency since the Supreme Court all but destroyed the Voting Rights Act in 2013 removing nearly all of its protections for minorities and marginalized groups in America.

In fact, a recent study released over the summer from NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice found the number of names removed from states’ voter rolls has increased significantly in recent years, raising concerns about the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.

The Brennan Center report states “almost 4 million more names were purged from the rolls between 2014 and 2016 than between 2006 and 2008,” nationwide. An increase of 33 percent in the number of removed voters. In contrast, the increase in the number of total registered voters was 18 percent since the near complete destruction of the Voting Rights Act.

When you think about it, 4 million votes is the difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as President of the United States, between Brett Kavanaugh and Merrick Garland as Supreme Court Justices.

But I digress.

(Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the ruling that purged tens-of-thousands of Indigenous people from the voting rolls because of their use of P.O. Boxes as addresses. Which further underscores the need for a more balanced Supreme Court)

If you weren’t aware, most Indigenous people don’t have physical addresses where they live so they have no other alternative but to use Post Offices Boxes. Imagine being a Native to a land stolen from you, then having the right to vote taken from you as well. That’s beyond fucked up.

In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg shared grave concerns that the rule could leave tens of thousands of the state’s voters unable to vote in November:

“The risk of disenfranchisement is large… Seventy thousand North Dakota residents — almost 20 percent of the turnout in a regular quadrennial election — lack a qualifying ID; and approximately 18,000 North Dakota residents also lack supplemental documentation sufficient to permit them to vote without a qualifying ID.”

For those of you who think the pillars of White Supremacy are long gone, I point to this incident, among thousands of others, as evidence to the contrary.

That’s exactly what all of these voter suppression tactics are. They are an effort to uphold the idea that White folks are more entitled to every single thing about, and of, America than the rest of us. Don’t believe me? How many White conservatives have you heard of being purged from the voting rolls?

I’ll wait.

In the Brennan Center’s study, they take an especially close look at the jurisdictions most affected by the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Shelby County v. Holder) that invalidated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Before the Shelby County ruling, certain states and counties, predominately in the South, were subject to federal preclearance. Meaning federal authorities had to approve any change in election practices to ensure those jurisdictions were not attempting to discriminate against minority voters. In its 2013 decision, the court threw out the formula used to determine which jurisdictions were subject to preclearance, saying it was decades out of date.

Since then, a Republican-held majority in Congress hasn’t come up with a new formula. Gee, I wonder why that is…

Remember what I said about White Supremacy?

Yeah. That.

The researchers continued by warning that states and counties formerly covered by preclearance saw a big uptick in their purge rates:

“Across the board, formerly covered jurisdictions increased their purge rates after 2012 more than noncovered jurisdictions. Before Shelby County, jurisdictions that were subject to preclearance requirements (“covered jurisdictions”) had removal rates equal to other jurisdictions (“noncovered jurisdictions”). After 2013, the two groups sharply diverged. For the 2012–14 and 2014–16 two-year election cycles, the removal rate for noncovered jurisdictions did not budge. The story was entirely different for covered jurisdictions, whose median removal rate was 2 percentage points higher after the Shelby County decision than the noncovered jurisdictions. Though 2 percentage points may seem like a small number, more than 2 million fewer voters would have been removed if these counties had removal rates comparable to the rest of the country. Previously covered jurisdictions ended up removing more than 9 million voters between the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016.

That’s a huge difference. One that takes us back to the Jim Crow era.

With Brett Kavanaugh, who has ruled several times in favor of strict voter ID laws that have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters, disproportionately affecting people of color, sitting on the court, we can expect this problem to only get worse.

This is the part where I tell you the importance of voting despite all the efforts to stop us from doing so. The best way to offset these tactics are through acts of Congress; legislation. And the best chance we have at achieving equality at the polls is by voting for people who represent who we are as a Nation. Who are willing to stand up for our diverse culture, our diverse population, and for our futures. Not some old pastime bullshit.

We have the power to displace the old guard whose sole purpose is to uphold those pillars of white supremacy and white male dominance over our country.

Those days are gone, and their days are numbered. But to ensure that, we have to make sure we get everyone out to polls and vote like our lives depend on it. Because for some of us, it most certainly does.