Voter Suppression is happening in many overt and covert ways in America. While few if any people who support these policies will call them “suppressive,” the net results can’t be ignored.
In June 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Article 5 of the Voting Rights Act and since then new laws suppressing votes have popped up in state’s across the country.
Voter ID Laws
Before 2006, no state required a government-issued photo in order to vote. Now, 30 states have some form of voter ID requirement. The assumption is that IDs will prevent voter fraud. The Brennan Center for Justice states in a 2006 fact sheet that it doesn’t make sense for someone to pretend to be someone else. “Each act of voter fraud risks five years in prison and $10,000 fine – but yields at most one incremental vote. The single vote is simply not worth the price. Because voter fraud is essentially irrational, it is not surprising that no credible evidence suggests a voter fraud epidemic.
Voter ID Matching Requirements
In a step beyond requiring voter Identification, Georgia’s voter registration verification process requires all of the letters and numbers comprising the applicant’s name, date of birth, driver’s license number or last four digits of the Social Security number to exactly match the same letters and numbers for the applicant in the state’s Department of Drivers Service or Social Security Administration databases. If even a single letter or number, or a hyphen, space or apostrophe, does not exactly match the database information can reject an application to vote.
Restricting Voter Registration Drives
Some states have passed laws making it difficult for volunteers to help eligible citizens register to vote. In Florida, groups and individuals running voter registration drives must pre-register with the state, sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury listing all criminal penalties for any false registration, and run each registration form over to a county official within 48 hour. If they messed up, an individual could personally face a $5,000 fine, third degree felony and up to five years in jail. Florida isn’t alone, in Ohio, voter registration workers are exposed to potential felony charges for making mistakes.
Miscellaneous Other Restrictions.
In other restrictive measures, states have banned same-day registration (most states never had it), eliminated laws that allowed young voters to pre-register ahead of their 18th birthday, shortened early voting periods, and disallowed extending polling place hours in case there were long lines.
