Voter Restrictions In The United States

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The 2016 presidential election was ripe with conspiracy theories, including those concerning voting fraud and the idea that elections are “rigged.” Donald Trump famously claimed that millions of dead voters were still casting ballots and that millions of citizens were registered to vote in two states, therefore voting twice. While popular, especially amongst Trump’s supporters, these claims are ultimately untrue. However, elections are rigged through the use of gerrymandering and suppression of minority voters, which is partly facilitated by voter ID laws. Election rigging is defined as the illegal interference with the election process.
Using the United States census report, voting district boundaries are redrawn every ten years. This process …show more content…
These voter restrictions have disproportionately targeted minority and poor communities. A 2014 study by New York University Law School’s Brennan Center for Justice found “that of the 11 states with the highest African American turnout in 2008, seven passed laws making it harder to vote. Of the 12 states with the largest Hispanic population growth in the 2010 Census, nine have new restrictions in place. And of the 15 states that used to be monitored closely under the Voting Rights Act because of a history of racial discrimination in elections, nine passed new restrictions” (Weiser, 2014). To start, some states have passed legislation making it more difficult to register to vote. Largely, this has been done by passing laws that shut down or hinder voter registration drives in at least four states. In Florida, the shutdown of voter registration drives resulted in a 21% decrease in new registration from 2008 to 2012, with an even more significant drop for eligible voter under age 21 (Weiser and Kasdan, 2012). One of the most popular ways to vote is to utilize early voting. Voting on weekends and evenings allowed many working-class people easier access to voting and was very popular among minority groups. However, as the number of African Americans and Latinos voting early increased, since 2011, eight states have cut back on early voting hours (Weiser, 2014). …show more content…
11 states required a photo ID to be shown at the time of the 2016 presidential election. Supporters of the voter ID laws insist that they are necessary to combat voter fraud, however, the proper identification can be difficult to obtain for elderly, African American, Latino, and low-income voters (Horwitz, 2016). A 2012 report by the Brennan Center for Justice stated that “among older voters, 18 percent do not have the kind of photo IDs required by these laws; for African-Americans, 25 percent; and for low-income voters, 15 percent,” (Weiser and Kasdan, 2012). Former Attorney General Eric Holder once likened the costs associated with obtaining a photo ID to poll taxes, which were used to prevent African Americans from voting during the Jim Crow era (Horwitz, 2016). A study performed by the University of California at San Diego analyzed voter turnout in elections between 2008 and 2012 in states that adopted strict voter ID laws. The study found that minority voter turnout in those states had lowered significantly over that period and concluded, “these results suggest that by instituting strict photo ID laws, states could minimize the influence of voters on the left and could dramatically alter the political leaning of the electorate,” (qtd. in Horwitz,
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