The “Inalienable” Right to Vote: Oppression efforts in the United States
By Medha Nagasubramanian and Oliver Polachini, 7/22/2021
How the “World’s Greatest Democracy” Practices Voter Suppression
The United States of America (U.S.) often portrays itself as an ideal democracy. Many U.S. politicians frequently criticize elections in other nations for their fraudulent and “undemocratic” nature. However, this “great American democracy” was founded on principles that only allowed rich white men to vote. While legislation may have changed, voter suppression practices have not. The 2020 US election may have seen higher voter turnout than any other election in recent history, but that was not because of a decrease in voter suppression. Rather, the increase in turnout was in spite of suppression attempts. In the election, nearly 65% of the eligible population cast a ballot, which is record breaking for the U.S, but mediocre compared to other western democracies. While voter suppression appears in many forms, it is commonly found in technicalities in the voter registration and ballot-casting process. The Republican party has worked to make the process even more complicated, all in the name of “election security.” These attempts have made voting for already underrepresented and marginalized groups even more difficult.
One of the biggest challenges in the voting process is actually registering to vote. In fact, the idea that citizens have to register at all is unusual. In other western countries (the majority of Europe), anyone who is a citizen is automatically registered to vote. The United States, however, chooses to make it more difficult for its citizens to participate in government. Additionally, the U.S. is one of the only western democracies where election day is not a holiday. This makes it more difficult for all workers to vote, but more so for wage workers who cannot afford to miss a full day’s paycheck. With the invalidation of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, states with a history of voter discrimination are now free to implement their own voting regulations, making voting regulations in 2020 more discriminatory than ever. This year, the Republican Party has sought to limit people’s ability to vote, which they believe will enable them to retain their hold on the government. Back in 1980, Conservative think tank founder Paul Weyrich said, “I don’t want everybody to vote . . . Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” The GOP has taken this to heart. In Wisconsin, a conservative law firm filed a lawsuit in order to invalidate the votes of 130,000 citizens due to a minor technicality. This was far from the only effort to suppress votes. From earnestly trying to invalidate mail-in ballots to restricting the number of polling stations in Texas and tossing out hundreds of thousands of votes due to the slightest technicalities, the 2020 election was riddled with conservative efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters.
This systematic campaign of voter suppression in the 2020 election, waged largely by the Republican party, has seriously impacted the country. Black voters have always experienced difficulty casting their ballots, and the 2020 election exacerbated the problem through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the GOP’s campaign. The number of illegal voter purges and suspect closures of polling sites has risen, and voting in rural communities has become significantly more difficult. Oftentimes, their nearest polling stations or post offices are several dozen miles away, making the process of casting ballots arduous and time consuming. This has been the case for Native Americans living on reservations. In Arizona, the Navajo Nation sued in order to have extra time for their mail-in votes to arrive, as there was only one post office for every 707 square miles. The Trump campaign did their best to block this lawsuit, further demonstrating their commitment to stopping marginalized groups from voting. Additionally, in Pennsylvania alone, more than 100,000 ballots may have been thrown out due to minor technicalities. The fact that one of the major political parties in the United States, supposedly the “world’s greatest democracy,” invests so much into suppressing the vote this election is highly disturbing. But on the bright side, voter turnout was higher than ever, which makes it seem like democracy won out in the end, despite severe symptoms of rampant political polarization.
Legislation Aims to Combat Voter Suppression
Voter suppression is defined as a political strategy used to influence and indirectly manipulate the result of an election by discouraging or preventing certain groups of people from voting. This practice is basically an attempt to distance the form of government from a democracy. Through excluding certain populations from voting, counting ballots from select groups guarantees victory for a certain candidate. One historical example is the censitary vote, which legally restricted voting groups by their possessions. However, it is worrying that, in the 21st century, some are still discouraged or prevented from performing their civic duties.
In many countries, voting is compulsory. This could be a solution for the US, if the more chronic problems in the system were remedied. Even with non-compulsory voting, voters from Georgia happened to wait for ten hours in lines simply to cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Having to wait for such a long time, and missing classes or hours of work, many gave up on voting simply because there was not an organized system that allowed all those who wanted to vote to do so in a reasonable timeframe. The problem is not new: in 2016, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a survey that showed that black voters had to wait for sixteen minutes in line, while white voters only had to spend ten minutes waiting. Thus, voters from minority groups face significant barriers in exercising their right to vote.
Instead of working to improve existing systems, state legislatures controlled by the Republican party implemented measures found to increase voter suppression. Republican lawmakers from 43 states proposed over 250 laws limiting access to early in-person, mail and Election Day voting. Some laws limited hours or narrowed eligibility to absentee voting, which is a startlingly anti-democratic measure. The significant impact that these suppressive measures have becomes clear as approximately 85 million voters, over half of all those who voted, used either early or absentee voting methods to cast their ballots. Applying further limits to these ways of representation could suppress even more votes, disproportionately impacting marginalized groups, which guarantees the victory of a certain side preferred by the groups who would still have a chance to vote.
However, there is still a spark of hope for future elections. President Joe Biden affirmed that “the right to vote is sacred and fundamental; it is the right from which all of our other rights as Americans spring. This landmark legislation is urgently needed to protect that right, to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen our democracy.” Currently, his party is already taking measures to combat voter suppression. House Resolution 1 contains policy “to expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes.” This legislation has already passed the House, and has now been advanced to the Senate. There, sixty votes are required to officially pass the bill. It is expected to be the largest expansion of the rights to vote since the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Hopefully, step by step, the United States is able to reclaim its title as a democracy, guaranteeing all Americans their inalienable right to vote.
The United States of America (U.S.) often portrays itself as an ideal democracy. Many U.S. politicians frequently criticize elections in other nations for their fraudulent and “undemocratic” nature. However, this “great American democracy” was founded on principles that only allowed rich white men to vote. While legislation may have changed, voter suppression practices have not. The 2020 US election may have seen higher voter turnout than any other election in recent history, but that was not because of a decrease in voter suppression. Rather, the increase in turnout was in spite of suppression attempts. In the election, nearly 65% of the eligible population cast a ballot, which is record breaking for the U.S, but mediocre compared to other western democracies. While voter suppression appears in many forms, it is commonly found in technicalities in the voter registration and ballot-casting process. The Republican party has worked to make the process even more complicated, all in the name of “election security.” These attempts have made voting for already underrepresented and marginalized groups even more difficult.
One of the biggest challenges in the voting process is actually registering to vote. In fact, the idea that citizens have to register at all is unusual. In other western countries (the majority of Europe), anyone who is a citizen is automatically registered to vote. The United States, however, chooses to make it more difficult for its citizens to participate in government. Additionally, the U.S. is one of the only western democracies where election day is not a holiday. This makes it more difficult for all workers to vote, but more so for wage workers who cannot afford to miss a full day’s paycheck. With the invalidation of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, states with a history of voter discrimination are now free to implement their own voting regulations, making voting regulations in 2020 more discriminatory than ever. This year, the Republican Party has sought to limit people’s ability to vote, which they believe will enable them to retain their hold on the government. Back in 1980, Conservative think tank founder Paul Weyrich said, “I don’t want everybody to vote . . . Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” The GOP has taken this to heart. In Wisconsin, a conservative law firm filed a lawsuit in order to invalidate the votes of 130,000 citizens due to a minor technicality. This was far from the only effort to suppress votes. From earnestly trying to invalidate mail-in ballots to restricting the number of polling stations in Texas and tossing out hundreds of thousands of votes due to the slightest technicalities, the 2020 election was riddled with conservative efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters.
This systematic campaign of voter suppression in the 2020 election, waged largely by the Republican party, has seriously impacted the country. Black voters have always experienced difficulty casting their ballots, and the 2020 election exacerbated the problem through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the GOP’s campaign. The number of illegal voter purges and suspect closures of polling sites has risen, and voting in rural communities has become significantly more difficult. Oftentimes, their nearest polling stations or post offices are several dozen miles away, making the process of casting ballots arduous and time consuming. This has been the case for Native Americans living on reservations. In Arizona, the Navajo Nation sued in order to have extra time for their mail-in votes to arrive, as there was only one post office for every 707 square miles. The Trump campaign did their best to block this lawsuit, further demonstrating their commitment to stopping marginalized groups from voting. Additionally, in Pennsylvania alone, more than 100,000 ballots may have been thrown out due to minor technicalities. The fact that one of the major political parties in the United States, supposedly the “world’s greatest democracy,” invests so much into suppressing the vote this election is highly disturbing. But on the bright side, voter turnout was higher than ever, which makes it seem like democracy won out in the end, despite severe symptoms of rampant political polarization.
Legislation Aims to Combat Voter Suppression
Voter suppression is defined as a political strategy used to influence and indirectly manipulate the result of an election by discouraging or preventing certain groups of people from voting. This practice is basically an attempt to distance the form of government from a democracy. Through excluding certain populations from voting, counting ballots from select groups guarantees victory for a certain candidate. One historical example is the censitary vote, which legally restricted voting groups by their possessions. However, it is worrying that, in the 21st century, some are still discouraged or prevented from performing their civic duties.
In many countries, voting is compulsory. This could be a solution for the US, if the more chronic problems in the system were remedied. Even with non-compulsory voting, voters from Georgia happened to wait for ten hours in lines simply to cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election. Having to wait for such a long time, and missing classes or hours of work, many gave up on voting simply because there was not an organized system that allowed all those who wanted to vote to do so in a reasonable timeframe. The problem is not new: in 2016, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a survey that showed that black voters had to wait for sixteen minutes in line, while white voters only had to spend ten minutes waiting. Thus, voters from minority groups face significant barriers in exercising their right to vote.
Instead of working to improve existing systems, state legislatures controlled by the Republican party implemented measures found to increase voter suppression. Republican lawmakers from 43 states proposed over 250 laws limiting access to early in-person, mail and Election Day voting. Some laws limited hours or narrowed eligibility to absentee voting, which is a startlingly anti-democratic measure. The significant impact that these suppressive measures have becomes clear as approximately 85 million voters, over half of all those who voted, used either early or absentee voting methods to cast their ballots. Applying further limits to these ways of representation could suppress even more votes, disproportionately impacting marginalized groups, which guarantees the victory of a certain side preferred by the groups who would still have a chance to vote.
However, there is still a spark of hope for future elections. President Joe Biden affirmed that “the right to vote is sacred and fundamental; it is the right from which all of our other rights as Americans spring. This landmark legislation is urgently needed to protect that right, to safeguard the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen our democracy.” Currently, his party is already taking measures to combat voter suppression. House Resolution 1 contains policy “to expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes.” This legislation has already passed the House, and has now been advanced to the Senate. There, sixty votes are required to officially pass the bill. It is expected to be the largest expansion of the rights to vote since the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Hopefully, step by step, the United States is able to reclaim its title as a democracy, guaranteeing all Americans their inalienable right to vote.
