When Republican States Interfere With the Right to Vote

2016 American Campaign / Maialisa / Pixabay

For many Americans, the right to vote is becoming more and more difficult to exercise. For the past years, some Republican states have adopted measures that affect the vote of minorities and low-income populations.

The most important achievement of the Civil Rights movement that is the right to vote is now threatened. These past years, several states implemented measures that are unfavorable to minorities and lower classes. "In a country that so prides itself on being a beacon of democracy to the world, that is a national disgrace," deplores Civil Rights activist WadeHenderson in the Wisconsin Gazette.

The Arizona and North Carolina cases

Last case in point : voters from Arizona, on March 22^nd, and from North Carolina, on March 15^th, have had to wait in line for hours in order to vote for the primaries. Since the last presidential election, Republican-governed Arizona reduced its Maricopa county voting booths by 70% : they went from 200 to 60, explains the daily Arizona Republic. It is to be noted that 40% of this county's inhabitants are minorities, the biggest percentage of the state. Booths from other counties have not been altered.

As Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton explainsto the Washington Post's columnist, long lines at voting booths "particularly hurt the least advantaged, who usually have less flexibility in their schedules than more affluent people do."

In Republican-led North Carolina, a new law states that, in order to be able to vote, one must own a State authority-issued ID with picture. According to the Christian Science Monitor, 218,000 registered voters do not own such a document.

A widespread weakening of the right to vote

According to the same weekly newspaper, 36 states have adopted such laws imposing to have a State-issued ID. However, nationally, 3 million people do not own such documents. Critics say that these measures hurt minorities, students (who often move states for their studies, and so do not have ID from the state they live in), and low-income citizens.

"A major culprit would be the U.S. Supreme Court," continues the Washington Post. In 2013, the then mostly Conservative Court overturned a key provision of the 1965Voting Rights Act. Thus it allowed several states, especially in the South, to modify their legislation on the right to vote without requiring the Federal State's approval, as was the case before in order to avoid any abuse.

For the Post's journalist, that kind of practice could result in an "electoral cataclysm" : "Are we not divided enough already? Can we risk holding an election whose outcome would be rendered illegitimate in the eyes of a very large number of Americans who might be robbed of their franchise?"

This article appeared (in French) on Courrier International