Lost Debate
The “Great Voting Rights” debate in the United States Senate is over. Despite having the narrowest of majority in the Senate, last week the Democrats failed to pass the “Freedom to Vote Act” and the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act”.
Since the 2020 election, a significant portion of the American citizenry mistakenly believe that the voting process was corrupted. This has actually become the sole “reason for being” of the Republican Party in multiple states: pass laws to make sure that voting is harder, especially on those who live in urban areas and are economically disadvantaged. The facts are that Republicans have targeted a particular group to “control” when it comes to voting, people generally of color, and who tend NOT to vote for Republicans.
Pre-Certification
Up until 2013, changes in election law in states with demonstrated prior discrimination had to go through a “pre-certification” process. The US Department of Justice had to agree to the changes, otherwise the state was required to go to Federal Court to prove those changes weren’t discriminatory. The “burden of proof” was on the state, placed there by the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed by Congress. But in 2013, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority on the Supreme Court, declared that “discrimination was over”, and reversed the burden of proof, requiring the Justice Department to prove discrimination on laws already in effect.
Big-Box Voting
This opened the door for electoral changes made to “save money”. Polling locations were consolidated, so that they were “more efficient”. The old local school or church or firehouse was closed, and the locations went from “retail” to “big box”. In Georgia, a law was passed capping the total number of voters at a given polling place at a huge 2600. But by 2020, in urban precincts that number was actually closer to 3600. And since the Justice Department no longer was able to rule prior to the law’s enactment, the consolidations went into effect.
In the June 2020 primaries (during the height of the pandemic), the Atlanta Journal Constitution noted the following:
“ On June 9, the last day of voting in Republican and Democratic primaries, the average wait time after 7 p.m. was six minutes — if you were at a polling place where at least 90% of voters were white. If you found yourself at a polling station where 90% of voters were Black, the wait time was 51 minutes.” (AJC)
Some might make a racist trope from that statistic, suggesting some kind of “laziness” or waiting to the last minute. But the reason for the “crowds” are in the numbers: the “big box” polling places were overloaded and understaffed, and the voters didn’t have the option of voting during work hours. They couldn’t vote “at lunch”. The location was too far away, and the wait was too long. They had to come after work.
What’s “Fixed”
Many election officials reasonably found ways to make early voting easier during the pandemic. But since 2020 in the State of Georgia, laws are in effect that:
- Give voters less time to request absentee ballots
- Place strict new ID requirements on absentee ballots
- Make it illegal for election officials to mail absentee ballot APPLICATIONS to all voters
- All but ban drive-up drop boxes, and mobile voting centers
- Expand early voting – but only in the less populous counties
- Threaten misdemeanor charges for offering food or water to those waiting in line to vote
- Make it even more difficult to vote if you go to the wrong polling place
- Restrict extending voting hours if there are technical voting problems (NYT).
And that’s just in Georgia. In Texas, a Republican controlled state where the GOP had success in 2020, their new laws include:
- Ban twenty-four hour voting
- Ban drive-thru voting
- Require additions vote-by-mail ID mandates
- Ban election officials from mailing unsolicited mail-in ballot applications
- Empowers “Poll Watchers” and their activities
- Make it more difficult to assist voters with disabilities
- Requires the State to make monthly checks of the voter rolls for non-citizens (CNN).
Right to Vote
Essentially, both Georgia and Texas (and seventeen other states) have made it harder to vote for those who already struggle: with disabilities, with childcare, with transportation, and with job hours. In 2020, more people voted in the United States than ever before. In fact, Donald Trump received the second most votes ever for President of the United States. But Joe Biden received more – and the Republican legislatures can’t have that!!
There are lots of problems in America, from Covid to pre-school education to 5-G towers at airports. But no issue cuts “closer to the bone” of the American democracy (little ‘d’) then the right to vote. Not since the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877, has there been a greater movement to restrict that right. As America continues into the Twenty-First Century, it’s hard to imagine we are moving “backwards” – but that’s where we are. The ”Great Debate” failed, but that doesn’t change the imperative to fix the problem.
What’s next?
