We Need a NEW Voting Rights Act
Today President Biden delivered an inspiring speech launching a new effort to overcome systemic racism in the United States. His moral argument just makes sense: “It’s what the core values of this nation call us to do.” In front of the cameras he signed four executive orders designed to begin his program to combat racism and bring a new decency to the nation.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/executive-orders-equity-joe-biden/index.html
Yet even as Biden spoke, Republicans across the nation have been plotting to place new barriers of systemic racism into our voting mechanisms. Articles appearing this week indicate the alarming Republican trend in the wake of their party's defeat to overhaul state and local voting laws. They have concluded they cannot win free and fair elections in many states and districts, so instead of changing their views to align with what voters want and protecting the rights of all eligible people to vote, they have committed themselves to implementing new forms of systemic cheating in elections.
This is nothing new for Republicans, of course. Under Trump's leadership the party reached levels of corruption previously unheard of. Corrupt attempts to prevent all but white rural and suburban voters from being heard at the polls were part of the party's national, state, and local strategy for the past four years. But those of us Pollyannas who hoped the corruption might fade away or at least lessen once the corrupt national leader was defeated are already being disappointed.
An article in Politico yesterday laid out the entire Republican plot — and it is a plot, very nearly a criminal conspiracy — to abrogate the rights of racial and ethnic minorities while electing White minority candidates whose policies do not reflect the will of the majority. Could any plan be more despicable? According to Politico, Georgia Republicans will focus on changing state election laws in an attempt to ensure Republicans are elected and disasters for their party such as happened in the recent elections do not occur again. In fact, Republicans in states across the nation are using Trump’s specious claims of voter fraud in 2020 as an excuse and a rallying cry to change voting laws to favor Whites and disfavor Black and Brown voters.
These so-called “voting integrity” efforts, code for voter discrimination, include the following strategies:
- Laws requiring voter IDs
- Reducing or eliminating early voting days
- Limits on mail voting; absentee voting only with a “valid” excuse
- Limiting the use of dropboxes
- Reducing the number of polling places (in minority neighborhoods)
There can be little doubt that these changes target minority voters to reduce their turnout while having little effect on White Republican voters. The Voter ID requirement is popular with many voters because there is logic behind ensuring voters are who they say they are — UNTIL you know how many people don't have photo IDs and cannot afford to pay to obtain birth certificates and other backup documents to prove their ID. The Politico article notes, “They are students and other young people, they’re communities of color, they’re older adults who are no longer driving, people with low income, people with disabilities,” said Kathleen Unger, the founder of VoteRiders. VoteRiders estimated that up to 25 million voting-age Americans lacked a government-issued photo ID.” Requiring a voter ID for these people amounts to a poll tax — you have to pay to obtain the right to vote — and many cannot afford those costs.
And here's the problem with reducing early and mail voting options and requiring voting on election day in states like Georgia. According to an article in USA Today, “It’s a breeze for Georgians in white neighborhoods to vote after work. The average line after 7 p.m. only takes six minutes in precincts that are 90% white. It’s a much longer slog in polling places that are 90% non-White. The average wait after 7 p.m.? Fifty-one minutes.” And of course Republicans want to increase the disparity to disenfranchise non-White voters who are more likely to vote Democratic. This policy accomplishes two goals: the election of Republicans and increasing discrimination against minorities in voting and representation.
These Republican strategies to hold down non-Whites and elect Republicans who lack majority support were once largely illegal. But the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that used to bar these strategies was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 in Shelby County vs Holder. The Act required only certain states and localities to take non-discrimination steps in voting based on historically observed racism in those places, and the court said the data was no longer current.
The court may have been right. Instead of a targeted Voting Rights Act affecting only certain localities, Congress should write a NEW Voting Rights Act to apply nationwide, since it is apparent that such discrimination is becoming a nationwide strategy. The new law should address each of the Republican strategies listed above and set standards for elections across the country to prevent the entrenchment of systemic racism in voting and to require all winning candidates to win fairly in free, open, non-discriminatory elections. This is the only solution to address the widespread Republican plans to elect themselves with less than majority support while openly discriminating against non-White voters.
