Voter Suppression: Rundown & Action

Hi everyone!
We've been on summer break for a little but we're back and have a really important topic to cover. As the summer nears an end, election season is upon us. We'll be unveiling a special project related to elections across the country very soon.
But it's essential that we address this before anything else. Voter suppression has been an issue in the United State since... forever, and it's been used to limit the votes of various groups that could threaten the powerful. 
It's also an especially pertinent issue now. The pandemic and the role of the postal service in the election has left lots of room for voter suppression. Also, Trump knows that there is a lot of discontent with him, and he's scared! Any conversation about this year's elections would be incomplete without talking about voter suppression. So let's go!

The History:

When the United States began, only property-owning white males were allowed to vote. Over time, the wealth requirement was done away with. In 1869, the 15th Amendment was passed amid Reconstruction and after the Civil War. It granted every citizen the right to vote regardless of race. 
Immediately following the ratification of the 15th Amendment, voter turnout of Black men in the South increased. However, as with many other policies, Southern states soon found ways to circumvent the 15th Amendment and prevent Black men from voting using voter suppression. These politicians wanted to stay in power and hang onto the pieces of the slavery system that they could. That meant preventing Black men from voting because they knew it would unseat them and legitimize a movement that threatened them.

Historical voter suppression tactics:

• Poll taxes: throughout the Jim Crow Era, Southern states required poll taxes, meaning voting was contingent on first paying a fee. 
  • Through grandfather clauses, poor whites could be exempted from poll taxes if their ancestors had voted before the Civil War. This meant that a policy that looked like economic discrimination on paper was effectively racial discrimination (obviously, almost no Black men had ancestors who voted before the civil war).
  • Most poll taxes were repealed between 1930 and 1966, and they are now formally illegal.
• Literacy tests: Literacy tests, another tactic of voter suppression (from around the 1890s-1960s), capitalized on the fact that African-American literacy rates were lower than white literacy rates because of a lack of accessible education.
  • Literacy tests were also administered unequally.  Similarly to white exemptions from the poll taxes, people who would have been able to vote prior to the passage of the 15th Amendment were exempt from the tests, along with property owners. 
  • Until an amendment to the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1970, states used literacy tests to prevent other groups from voting, including immigrants and poor people. 
• Voter intimidation: Voter intimidation, with threat of violence, often dissuaded Black men in the South from casting their votes.
• A more subdued, yet still effective, form of intimidation emphasizes the criminal consequences of voter fraud through armed patrols outside polling locations and billboards. In the 1980s, the Republican National Committee created the National Ballot Security Task Force, a group of armed police officers who stood outside polling places in New Jersey. 
• Another tactic is disinformation; in the 2008 election, Democrats in Nevada received fake phone calls claiming they could vote by phone or telling them the wrong date for the election. Other disinformation campaigns used during that election told voters that their vote would not count if they had registered through a Democratic-leaning organization (Ohio) and giving absentee voters the wrong address to mail their ballots to (Michigan). 
• Voter suppression through lack of accessible registration has become common in recent decades. Many states have gotten rid of same day registration, put photo ID requirements in place and limited voter registration drives. In 2008, 6% more Black people utilized registration drives than whites, 54% of Black people voted early in Florida, and in 2011 when eight states passed voter ID laws 1 in 4 Black people did not have a government issued photo ID compared to 1 in 10 of all Americans. These are restrictions that Black people are statistically less likely to be able to navigate due to the effects of systemic racism. 
• Available early voting days have continually decreased since the aughts, making voting harder for those unable to cast their vote on election day (which most people have to work on, as it is not a national holiday). Florida saw a decrease by six days of early voting from 2004 to 2008, Ohio saw a decrease by eighteen days from 2008 to 2012, and Georgia limited early voting by twenty four days from 2008 to 2012 (ACLU). In many states where early voting was limited, a significant percentage of Black people voted early prior to the restrictions. 
• Polling place accessibility for disabled people has long been an issue that is yet to be fully addressed. While the ADA provides some protections and standards for polling places, many polling places remain inaccessible to disabled would-be voters. 
• A more permanent and dehumanizing form of voter suppression takes the form Felon Voting Laws. These laws restrict the ability of convicted felons to cast their vote after they have served their sentence. While no state currently has a total ban on voting by former felons, 9 states may strip the right to vote permanently, 19 restore the right to vote only after probation is completed, 2 states restore voting rights after parole, and 18 restore voting rights directly after prison. States that do not automatically restore the right to vote often have an application process that former felons must pass through to restore their right to vote. These laws disproportionately affect groups that are more likely to go to prison or be convicted of a felony, which due to the systemic racism of the US carceral system, is mostly Black men. ​

Sources:
https://people.howstuffworks.com/voter-suppression2.htm
https://www.aclu.org/facts-about-voter-suppression
https://felonvoting.procon.org/state-felon-voting-laws/
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/voting-in-2020/blocked-from-the-ballot-box/

Spotlight on Gerrymandering: 

What is gerrymandering?
Gerrymandering is the act of drawing electoral district boundaries that prefer one group over another (usually along race or political party lines), and has been one of the U.S.’ most widespread forms of voter suppression. The practice has two main strategies: cracking, where boundaries are drawn to spread opposing voters thin among districts, and packing, where as many opposing voters are stuffed into as few districts as possible. Both methods crush the collective voting power of the people, and ensure a safe victory for the favored group.

How are districts gerrymandered?
Redistricting is the process of making new district boundaries, done after every United States Census. Many states enlist their own state legislature to do the job, which can lead to the body’s dominant party manipulating the borders to fulfill its own interests. Maryland is a notable example—a state that has drawn its boundaries to target majority Democratic areas, effectively suppressing Republican voters by cracking their vote. As a result, all but one district has a Democratic representative in Congress.

What can gerrymandering do to communities of color?
Gerrymandering by race has been outlawed since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, yet it still hasn’t put an end to the practice. In 2011, North Carolina’s legislature drafted boundaries explicitly designed to keep the state’s black population crammed into two districts, 1 and 12. Black voters, often strong Democratic supporters, were left weakened and disenfranchised as the GOP dominated further elections. 
The Supreme Court ruled the borders unconstitutional in Cooper v. Harris, but refused to act on the issue of gerrymandering by party, deeming it too political and leaving it to state-level courts in Rucho v. Common Cause. The borders may have since been redrawn, but the federal government refuses to solve the problem that allowed this racism to happen. So what’s there to do?

How can gerrymandering be fought?
Although we the people can’t battle gerrymandering directly, there are still ways of fixing or even preventing it. Some states, like California and Michigan, place independent commissions in charge of redistricting to erase any bias. Overthrowing Rucho v. Common Cause must also become a priority. 
Redistricting is a task that falls into the hands of local government-- another reason why local elections are extremely important.
A practice that breaches American voting rights is not a state or partisan issue, and needs to be dealt with on a national level. The 2020 Census gives states an ample opportunity to crack, pack, and cheat as many votes into irrelevance as they can. It’s important to recognize how and why they do this, so that hopefully we can one day end the great American gerrymander.

Voter Suppression in 2020

While voter suppression has been an ongoing issue in the United States, it has been exacerbated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, as more people are unable to leave their homes and go to voting centers. According to CBS news, 70% of voters have expressed a desire to vote by mail in the upcoming November election. With a record number of voters now planning to use mail-in ballots, President Trump has (inaccurately) argued that it will lead to massive voter fraud. Earlier this month, Trump admitted to blocking additional funding for the United States Postal Service in order to complicate the process of voting by mail. Additional funding was requested by states in order to handle the expected increase in mail-in ballots. Lack of funding is already dramatically slowing down the United States Postal Service, indicating that many mail-in ballots may not arrive in time to be counted for the general election in November. It is being recommended that people send in their ballots as soon as possible to decrease the chance of their ballot being disregarded. Already in the 2020 primary election, 65,000 ballots weren’t considered because they arrived late by mail. This indicates how big a threat the suppression of the United States Postal Service really is. This intentional sabotage of the postal service not only threatens people’s right to vote, but it also slows down other services that people across the country rely on, such as receiving medication in the mail, something which is very common, especially in more rural communities and throughout the current pandemic.
In addition to a lack of funding, the current postmaster general, Louis Dejoy, who Trump appointed earlier this year, is a big Republican donor. Dejoy has introduced changes into the postal service, such as alterations in worker schedules and working hours, which significantly affect the swiftness of the postal service. Additionally, Dejoy reportedly enforced the removal of mailboxes and other mail equipment in order to delay postal service. Throughout all of this voting turmoil, uncertainty is growing on both sides of the issue, as people across the country are losing confidence that their ballot will be considered, and in the validity of those votes that are counted. 
Equally as important are the devastating effects that these USPS delays are having on many Americans. The USPS is the largest employer of veterans, and its union has the most Black union-members of any union in the US. Many Americans are dependent on the USPS for medicine and other necessities, especially those who can't go outside due to the pandemic. Trump putting these people's lives at risk to rig an election in his favor is purely evil.

Articles to read for additional information: 
Trump's USPS attacks are already undermining confidence in vote by mail
Can the Post Office Handle Election Mail? Why the Recession Could Actually Help

Take Action​

Saving the USPS:
- Super quick action: Text USPS to 50409 to send a letter to your reps  (using Resistbot, one of our favorite tools).
​
- Urge your Senator to pass H.R. 8015, which the House just approved. It would halt Trump's changes to the USPS until after the election and increase the USPS' budget (read more here).
Phone number: 202-224-3121 (ask for your Senator)
Script: Hi, my name is ____ and I'm from _____. I'm calling to ask you to please support H.R. 8015, the Delivering for America Act, to help protect the USPS. During this pandemic, it is simply not safe for many Americans to vote in person and they must vote by absentee ballot instead. President Trump has admitted to trying to hurt the postal service in order to interfere with these absentee ballots. This blatant act of fascism is not only threatening voting rights, it's stopping Americans from receiving their postal service with important things like medication. We cannot let Trump's selfishness get in the way of the essential work of the USPS. Please vote for the bill when it comes to the floor, and co-sponsor it if you have not yet done so. Thank you."

- Sign this petition (there are also actions to take in the description!). 

- Buy some stuff! Here is a link to the USPS Stamp Store, which has lots of cool collections. And here is a link to some literal USPS merch.

- Stay updated with Save The Post Office, a movement to do, well, just what the name says!

Fighting Voter Suppression:
- The incomparable Stacey Abrams and her organization Fair Fight are doing incredible work to end voter suppression. Please consider donating to them or volunteering nationally or in Georgia! Find all the links here.

- Volunteer with When We All Vote for some voter-registration-specific action

We'll see you soon!

Peace and Power,
Teens Resist

Contributors to this list: Leo Levine, Miranda Licardo, Christopher Giang, Rivka Stasavage, Sonia Chajet Wides, Kate Griem