The War on Voting Rights - Part 2
In 2020, as the pandemic raged across America, election officials scrambled, looking for ways to make voting safer. They dramatically expanded the use of early voting, mail-in ballots and other measures. Turnout soared, and the country conducted a fair, secure and safe election. The new approaches worked so well that many states may adopt them permanently.
But many Republicans, cheered on by Donald Trump, want to make voting harder, based on his lies about election fraud and his attacks on mail-in ballots in particular. Unfortunately, Trump’s Big Lie has worked: about 70% of Republicans believe that the election was stolen.
Since November, Republican lawmakers have introduced over 160 proposals in 33 states to curtail voting rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Including bills that the Republicans have carried over from previous sessions, they are pursuing over 400 measures in 43 states. They would restrict mail-in ballots and early voting, or they would disenfranchise voters through other means, such as tighter I.D. requirements or voter purges.
These Republican officials want to suppress turnout, rather than increase it, because they fear that they cannot win a fair election. In their view, the only good election is one that their party wins. Their attitude poses a clear and present danger to our democracy.
The Solution: The For the People Act
To protect Americans’ right to vote, Congress should pass the For the People Act. On March 3, the House of Representatives passed the Act 220-210, in a vote based on party lines. The measure will next go to the Senate, where it will face strong opposition from Republicans.
The Act would only apply to Federal contests, which Congress has authority to regulate, rather than state elections. Still, the Act would ensure that every vote counts in Congressional elections, and it could serve as a good model for reform on the state level.
In Part 1, we discussed how the Act would eliminate gerrymandering in Congressional elections. [insert link] In this article, we will focus on how the Act’s other key provisions would safeguard voting rights and combat voter suppression.
Refighting the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era
In many respects, we are fighting the same battle for voting rights that has raged since the Civil War, starting with the Reconstruction Era….150 years ago. After the Civil War, Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment partly so that newly freed Blacks could vote. With Federal troops stationed in the South, Black Americans voted, ran for office, and gained political power in many states.
But white Northerners eventually tired of maintaining a large Federal presence in the former Confederacy to protect Black Americans’ rights, and the troops departed. The Southern white establishment struck back, passing Jim Crow laws that made it impossible for most Blacks to vote.
Today, sadly, many Republican lawmakers are using similar tactics. But this time they are trying to disenfranchise an even broader swath of the electorate: Blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and white urban dwellers, because these groups tend to vote Democratic. Rather than compete for votes on the basis of their policy proposals, many Republicans are using cynical, banana-republic maneuvers to stay in power.
Furthermore, it’s not just Southern state legislatures that are employing dirty tricks now. Republican lawmakers are trying to make voting harder throughout the country.
Defending Early Voting and Mail-in Ballots
The Act would require states to provide expanded early voting and mail-in ballots for Congressional races. These provisions are especially important, because many Republican lawmakers are already trying to limit the amount of early voting days and slash the number of drop-off boxes for mail-in ballots.
For example, Wisconsin legislators have proposed providing just one drop-off box for Milwaukee, a city of almost 600,000 residents. It’s not a coincidence that Milwaukee has a large Black population and votes heavily Democratic.
In Georgia, Republican lawmakers have introduced two bills, one of which has already passed in the House, which would:
End automatic voter registration
Ban drop-off boxes for mail ballots
Eliminate “no excuse” requests for mail-in ballots
In addition, the Republicans would cut back early voting hours on Sundays. Why? Because many Blacks vote after attending church services.
The rationale for these restrictions is to prevent voting fraud. But Georgia’s last election was affirmed as fair and accurate, after being audited twice by hand-counting the ballots.
Five states already rely primarily, though not exclusively, on mail-in ballots: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington. They have not experienced any significant fraud. Furthermore, voters like the convenience, so turnout is higher than in other jurisdictions. These states have also saved money in the long run, after incurring some start-up costs.
Despite his attacks on mail-in ballots, Donald Trump himself has used absentee ballots in several elections.
There is no real difference between an absentee ballot and a mail-in ballot. The distinction is that a voter has to ask for an absentee ballot and, in many states, provide a reason for the request. In the five states that rely mostly on mail-in voting, officials automatically send a ballot to all registered voters.
Opening the Door for New Voters
In some states, registering to vote can be a time-consuming process, which discourages many Americans from becoming part of the electoral process. That is one reason why turnout is low in our elections. The Act would simplify and modernize the process, so that more people would register and, hopefully, participate in elections.
The Act would require states to provide the following procedures for voters in Federal elections:
Automatic registration
Online registration
Same day registration
Under the Act, state officials would register an eligible voter when he or she obtains or renews a driver’s license at a Department of Motor Vehicle office. Many states already provide this “motor-voter registration”. The DMV of course has the voter’s key information, so there is no chance of fraud.
Voters could also register online, rather than having to visit state election officials. The Act would allow voters to register on the same day as an election, which would be particularly helpful for people who have moved. The Act would provide safeguards against fraud.
Fighting Voter Suppression
These steps would not just make registration more convenient; they could help to avoid voter suppression. Many Southern states, in particular, have rejected eligible voters because of minor errors on their registration forms. Many if not most of those voters are Black. Online registration would reduce any such errors, and same day registration would let voters correct any errors.
The Act would prohibit states from purging eligible voters from the registration rolls. In recent years, several Southern states have conducted extensive purges of voters from their rolls, theoretically to prevent fraud but really to eliminate minority voters.
Georgia on My Mind
From 2012 to 2018, Georgia, the poster child for this kind of voter suppression, kicked 1.5 million voters off its rolls under Brian Kemp, who was then Secretary of State. In 2017 alone, Kemp purged 750,000 voters. At that time, Kemp was also preparing to run for Governor against Stacy Abrams, the Black minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives. In the election, which took place the next year, Kemp beat Abrams by just 50,000 votes. That was a thin margin, compared to the 4 million votes cast and the many voters who were purged.
If the Georgia legislature passes the two bills to restrict voting, they would go to Gov. Kemp for his approval. Given his track record, it’s safe to assume he would sign the bills into law.
Georgians waiting in line to vote, November 2020 (Getty Images)
Combating Racial Discrimination
The For The People Act would also specifically target voting rules and practices that discriminate against racial minorities, by reauthorizing a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Section 5 of that law required several states with a history of racial discrimination to submit all proposed voting laws and regulations for approval to Federal authorities, who vetoed abusive practices. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted this provision in Shelby County v. Holder, deciding on its own that racial discrimination was no longer a problem. About 15 states, all governed by Republicans, immediately adopted laws aimed at suppressing minority voters. The For the People Act would override that terrible decision.
Former felons who have served their sentences would have their voting rights restored. Black American men are disproportionately affected by laws that prevent former felons from casting ballots.
Shining a Spotlight on Dark Money
Large donors provide the lion’s share of campaign contributions, often through secretive political action committees (PACs) that don’t disclose their contributors’ name. These huge pools of funds, or dark money, allow these donors to exercise a great deal of influence on members of Congress.
The For The People Act would bring dark money into the open: secret money organizations would have to disclose their donors. Voters would see the list of major contributors for all members of Congress, as would journalists. These disclosures should shed light on how big contributors are influencing politicians’ agendas and votes.
In another step to reduce the influence of big donors, Congress would establish a public finance system. This approach should also reduce the pressure on candidates to raise money to finance their campaigns, which takes up a great deal of their time.
The system would be funded by fines levied on corporate malefactors for violating laws (not election-related offenses), rather than by appropriations from Congress. The fund would match donations from small donors to candidates.
The Act would save us all a lot of trouble in another way. Candidates for President and Vice President would have to release their tax returns.
Given the way things are going in the Grand Old Party, we better get that provision passed before 2024…
The Wall Street Democrat