Did you know that US has the lowest voter turnout rate among the developed nations? At the last presidential election in 2020, voter turnout stood at 66.7%, the highest in 120 years. On top of all, the U.S does not have a uniform voting rights policy at the federal level, despite every U.S. citizen is constitutionally guaranteed of right to vote by the Fifteenth Amendment. To add fuel to fire, voting options such as mail in- voting and drive-through voting which became popular and attracted a record number of voters at the last presidential election, have been scrapped by a series of disenfranchising voting reform laws recently enacted by 18 Republic-led states. This has set a paradigm for other states eyeing to enact similar restrictive voting laws. These state-level voting overhauls are signed into law in the name of preventing voter frauds and strengthening integrity of the electoral system. But, in fact, they are seen by many as part of a much larger attempt to suppress and subvert voting rights of minorities and other marginalized groups. They are the new face of Jim Crow laws. And they, sure, are a blatant attack on constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.
How Democrats and Republicans perceive new voting reform laws?
In early September, Texas Governor Greg Abbot signed into law Senate Bill 1 bringing sweeping changes to the way Texans exercise their right to vote, by drastically reducing the voting options previously available to them. "Election integrity is now the law in the state of Texas" Abbot defended the new Bill after signing it into law. According to the new law, 24-hour polling sites are no more, thus limiting hours of early voting. New voter ID requirements to voting by mail are imposed. Mail-in voting is what Americans use to call for postal voting. Absentee ballots which allow voters to cast their vote elsewhere other than assigned polling booths, are one such form of mail-in voting. Eligible voters registered for vote online or by paper form can apply for mail-in voting and receives ballot paper though mail. Voters can return their mail-in ballots through USPS or the use of drop-boxes. Election officials cannot send unsolicited absentee ballots to voters unless they make a request. No Sunday voting before 13:00. This is seen as a coward attempt to suppress Black Churches driven souls-to-polls drives which encourage voter registration among Black communities. Moreover, monthly citizenship checks have been put in place. Number of drop boxes available for voters to cast their mail-in ballots have been reduced. The new law also bans drive-through voting. Partisan poll watchers are granted free-movement inside polling stations, and under the new law they are the only ones allowed to provide refreshments to voters standing in long ques outside polling stations. Drive-through voting is said to be responsible for attracting a record number of voters among African-American communities in Houston at the last Presidential Elections.
Rights groups voice their concerns that Texas's new law is racially discriminatory and has been passed with an intention to discriminate minority voters and thereby violates section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act. Critiques also point out that the need for private information such as Driver's License Number or last four digits of Social Security Number to be given under the new voter ID requirement endangers the secrecy of ballot. Prior to the new law, a signature matching process was used to verify ballots.
Which states have passed restrictive voting reform laws so far?
Iowa became the first state to pass an electoral reform Bill back in March this year. It reduced early voting hours from 29 to 20 days. Georgia became the second state to restrict voting rights with the enactment of Election Integrity Act of 2021. In November this year, Georgia is set to conduct its first municipal election under the new voting reforms.
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| Will Smith's upcoming movie 'Emancipation' pulled out of Georgia over restrictive voting laws. |
Texas's journey in enacting the Senate Bill 1 has been an exceptional one. It's true that everything Texas does makes big headlines in U.S. Texas attracted huge media attention in last July when Texan Democrat legislators fled the state in two private jets bound to Washington D.C. in a bid to prevent Republican-run legislature from securing the required two-thirds quorum to vote on the Bill. These Democratic legislators were dealt with a bitter blow when the Governor Abbot signed the new Bill into effect in early September. But, it is feared, Texas won't be the last to impose such restrictive voting laws.
Commonalities of states which have introduced new voting overhauls.
Amongst the 18 states which have recently enacted voting reform laws, a few things can be seen in common. One, all of them have Republican led state legislatures. Secondly, most of these states have not been the subject of any allegations of substantial voter frauds, but still bargains for preventing voter frauds. Voter frauds, although some minor incidents of fraud were highly publicized, are incredibly rare. The rate of voter fraud in U.S. stands less than 0.0009%, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The fact that drive-though voting and mail-in voting encouraged huge number of voters from these states to cast their votes in favor of Biden is what might have led these states to pass restrictive voting laws. The newly banned drive-through voting is said to have renewed a sense of civic engagement among black community and minority groups living in these Red states. Stats reveal that Democrats have largely requested for mail-in ballot than their Republican counterparts.
Republicans baselessly allege that mail-in voting is susceptible to frauds, and view voting reform bills as a common sense approach to preventing frauds. To Democrats, mail-in voting is an extremely safe and secure method of casting ballots and those who equate mail-in voting to electoral frauds are mere conspiracy theorists. To them, these new state measures sound very sick and suppressive of voting rights. For them, fight against voter suppression laws has always been more than about a vote. They perceive minority voter dilution as part of a much larger diabolical political scheme to discriminate and racially segregate Black communities.
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| President Biden condemns voter suppression laws as Jim Crows. |
What's causing the recent wave of voter suppression laws?
Trump's ghost is still haunting U.S. politics, with implications for many generations to come. Trump accused the last presidential election being a rigged election and blamed mail-in voting to be responsible for alleged substantial electoral frauds which led to his defeat. He was the first president to lose a re-election, since 1932.
Now Republicans in states where they have secured legislative power are trying to introduce voting reform laws to reduce black communities' access to voting. It's no secret Trump's toxic political legacy as President has been characterized by white supremacy and racial divide. Therefore black communities are obviously not in good terms with the Trump-led Republican camp. So they would obviously choose Democrats over Republicans. Empowering voting rights of minorities through mail-in voting and drive-through voting are at odds with prospects of a future Republican-run House and a future Republican president.
Currently there is a razor-thin Democratic majority in both the chambers of US Congress, many statehouses are run by Republican majorities who have secured legislative control in over 30 states. Texas, Georgia, Arizona and Iowa which are governed by Republican majorities are perfect examples for states which have recently resorted to enacting voter suppression laws as part of their political strategy.
Historic mistake made by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Shelby County v. Holder (2013) is a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court where the court in a 5-4 vote struck down 'coverage formula' set out under section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965(VRA) as unconstitutional and impinging principles of federalism and equal sovereignty of the states. Coverage formula listed out 9 states, mostly in Southern US(to name them all; Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, some counties in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx) based on their history of voter discrimination and requires them to obtain federal preclearance in advance before passing voting reform laws. Consequently section 5 of the Act became redundant as there are no more jurisdictions subject to the preclearance requirement unless the Congress adds a new coverage formula to the Act.
Yet another sequel of Shelby dealt a crippling blow to voting rights in last July this year, when Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee(2021) ruled that Arizona's ban of ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting through House of Bill 2023 did not violate section 2 of VRA which prohibits discriminatory voting practices or procedures on the basis of race, color, or language. But this time Supreme Court did not strike down, but merely diluted the intended effect of section 2. Alito J opined that the ban on out-of-precinct voting does not unusually burden a voter as all it takes for a voter to cast his ballot is to identify his polling station and travel there. He also went on to justify state's measure as legitimate in countering electoral fraud. The court ruled that the bill has not been passed with an intent of racial discrimination.
CJ Roberts in Shelby proudly remarked that racism has waned and the country has changed a lot. That was in 2013, 8 years ago. Interesting, in July 2021, CJ Roberts joined the majority opinion in Brnovich , failing to notice any wrong with the alarming pace at which voter suppression laws are taking effect across Southern States. A lot has changed since Shelby. The recent wave of voter suppression laws at the state level makes a much more clearer picture of how deep racism has run into in US politics. The nation is plagued by growing racism, much of it politically motivated. The future of minorities are being played out in high-stakes political games. With Brnovich, minority voting rights are forced to face an ultimatum. Minorities are victimized and deprived of their voting rights as part of this shrewd power-grabbing schemes.
Restrictive voting laws come into effect without prior federal approval previously required under section 5 and section 4(b) of the VRA. The only recourse to challenge these voting laws would be after-the-fact litigation in courts. With the precedent set by Brnovich, it takes little imagination for anybody to discern that any future challenge under section 2 of VRA against state-level voting laws will necessarily be decided in favor of states. Now, in the absence of a requirement of prior federal clearance, floodgates have been opened for state-level voter suppression laws to be signed into law unchecked. These floodgates must immediately be shutdown with some form of bipartisan voting rights legislation at the federal level.
Freedom to Vote Act in the making.
Democrats are campaigning for a federal democracy reform bill 'Freedom to vote Act' to prevent voter suppression at the state level. The previous Bill 'For the People Act' failed to pass in the Senate. The new Act aims to enact new voter ID requirements and expand early voting, to declare Election Day as a national holiday, to ban partisan gerrymandering. The bill has been passed by the House of Reps but awaits Senate approval. Th Senate cloture rule commonly known as filibuster rule requires a vote of 60 Senators out of its 100 membership to move a Bill for a vote. Breaking through the filibuster rule is an uphill battle for Democrats as the current Senate composition has a Republican majority. If the Bill stands, it will prevail over restrictive voting laws at the state-level and introduce uniform standards of voting rights for all states. It will strengthen the integrity of the electoral system while securing voting rights to all citizens, regardless of color, language and race.
Right now, not many options are on the Democrats' table, the Bill is seen as the final chance to break the wave of proposed voting overhauls led by GOP-led states at state level. When Republican paradigm is spreading like wild-fire across Red-states, the prospect of enacting a federal legislation like Freedom to Vote Act is the last chance to save voting rights of all U.S. citizens. In an eroding democracy, it is the only effective recourse in sight to turn back the tide of voter suppression laws.
A country which overcame centuries of racial segregation after a long-fought struggle for freedom by civil rights activists in 60's has run deep into systemic racism over the past decade. In this context, it's appropriate to leave with a question for the reader, 'do Black lives really matter in America?'
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