Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: Disguising Voter Suppression

The current push by Republican legislatures and pundits to combat “illegal immigrants” from voting is merely a disguised attempt to suppress the votes of legitimate voters who traditionally do not favor their candidates. Instances of undocumented immigrants voting are so exceedingly rare that only a handful of cases have been discovered over decades of records. This makes logical sense—undocumented immigrants typically do everything they can to stay in the shadows, minimizing their risk of deportation. Most of the known cases involve immigrants who have been living in the United States since childhood, and even then, only a few have been prosecuted. Considering that over one billion votes have been cast over the past decade in federal and state elections, efforts to stop undocumented immigrants from voting disguises the quiet part.

The real target of attacking illegal immigrants are the following: 

1. Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Historically targeted by practices like poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent intimidation, modern voter suppression tactics, such as voter ID laws and voter roll purges, disproportionately impact Black voters.
2. Latinos: Latino communities are often impacted by voter ID laws, exact match laws, and limited access to bilingual ballots. Latino voters may also face difficulties with voter registration due to residency verification issues or documentation barriers.
3. Native Americans: Native American voters face unique challenges, including strict ID requirements, as many lack traditional addresses or access to government services. In rural tribal lands, there may also be limited polling places, requiring long travel distances to vote.
4. Low-Income Individuals: Voter ID laws, strict residency requirements, and voter roll purges disproportionately affect low-income individuals who may not have access to government-issued identification, may move frequently, or may not be aware of administrative changes like purges. Low-income voters also face challenges like long polling lines, which can be difficult to navigate due to inflexible work hours.
5. Elderly Voters: Strict voter ID laws and complicated absentee voting processes can disproportionately affect elderly voters, especially those without driver’s licenses or access to transportation. Limited polling locations and long lines may also prevent elderly voters from participating.
6. Students and Young Voters: Students often face challenges when trying to register to vote in their college towns due to strict residency requirements. Voter ID laws that do not accept student IDs and limits on early voting can further suppress young voters, who may rely on flexible voting options.
7. Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: Many states have felon laws that prevent formerly incarcerated individuals from voting. Since racial minorities are disproportionately incarcerated, felony disenfranchisement disproportionately affects African Americans and Latinos.

Voter suppression refers to tactics used to prevent or discourage specific groups from voting. While obvious forms of voter suppression—such as literacy tests and poll taxes—have been largely abolished, modern methods continue to exist in more subtle forms. These tactics include restrictive legislation, governmental barriers, and strategic changes in voting infrastructure. 

Key methods of modern voter suppression include:

1. Voter Identification Laws: These laws require individuals to present specific forms of identification to vote, usually government-issued photo IDs like a driver’s license or passport. 

• • Impact on Vulnerable Populations: Low-income individuals, minorities, the elderly, and students are more likely to lack the necessary identification. Obtaining an ID may require fees for documentation or travel to government offices, which may be difficult for those living in rural areas or without access to transportation. Currently as many as 11% of U.S. citizens lack government-issued photo ID, disproportionately affecting African Americans and Latinos citizens who traditionally vote with the Democrat candidate.

2. Voter Roll Purges: This involves removing individuals from voter registration lists if they are thought to have moved, died, or become otherwise ineligible. While maintaining accurate voter rolls is essential, aggressive or inaccurate purges results in disenfranchising eligible voters.

• • Example of Suppression: In states like Georgia and Ohio, voters have been removed from rolls simply for failing to vote in previous elections. Inaccuracies in data matching systems can also cause eligible voters to be wrongly removed, and disproportionately affect minority voters, who are more likely to change addresses.

3. Felony Disenfranchisement: Many states prevent individuals with felony convictions from voting, either temporarily during their incarceration or permanently. The severity of felony disenfranchisement laws varies across the U.S., with some states automatically restoring voting rights post-sentence, while others impose lifelong bans.

• • Disproportionate Impact on Minorities: Due to systemic racial biases in the criminal justice system, felony disenfranchisement laws disproportionately affect African American and Latino communities. In 2020, an estimated 5.2 million Americans were unable to vote because of felony convictions, with African Americans being four times more likely than non-African Americans to lose their voting rights.

4. Reduction of Polling Locations: A common tactic to suppress voters is the closure or reduction of polling locations in minority communities. By limiting the number of voting sites, states and localities can create long lines and discourage voters from participating, particularly those who cannot afford to take time off work or lack reliable transportation.

• • Creating Voting Barriers: During the 2016 election, Maricopa County, Arizona, closed 70% of its polling places, reducing the number from 200 in 2012 to just 60. These closures disproportionately impacted Latino neighborhoods, where some voters waited for hours to cast their ballots.  This also happened in Fulton and Cobb counties in Georgia where minority communities are heaviest and the lines to vote the longest.

5. Restrictions on Early Voting and Absentee Voting: Some states have placed limitations on early voting periods and absentee voting, which can create barriers for voters who may not be able to vote in person on Election Day due to work schedules, family responsibilities, or health concerns.

• • Impact on Marginalized Groups: Early voting periods are often utilized by minority voters, particularly African Americans, who may benefit from the flexibility offered by non-traditional voting times. By reducing the availability of early voting or absentee voting, lawmakers effectively make it harder for these communities to participate in elections. One example came in Georgia, where they closed polling places on Sundays given the “souls to the polls” initiatives black churches were using to get their members to vote.

6. Gerrymandering: This refers to the practice of drawing electoral district boundaries in a way that favors one political party over another. While it does not prevent people from voting outright, it dilutes the voting power of specific groups.

• • Racial Gerrymandering: Minority communities are often packed into a single district or spread thinly across several districts to weaken their political power. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled racial gerrymandering unconstitutional, but the practice persists under the disguise of political gerrymandering, which is legal.

7. Exact Match Laws: This requires that the information on a voter’s registration form exactly matches government databases. Small discrepancies, such as a missing hyphen in a name or a typographical error, can disqualify voters from registering or voting.

• • Example: In Georgia, an exact match law disqualified thousands of voters in 2018 for minor discrepancies in name spelling, disproportionately affecting African American, Latino, and Asian voters.

Voter suppression undermines democracy by disproportionately affecting marginalized groups, weakening their political representation. When certain groups are prevented from voting, it skews the electorate and diminishes the legitimacy of electoral outcomes. These tactics are proven to reduce voter turnout and erode public trust in our elections. From a partisan perspective, the quiet part is simple: the fewer people who vote, the better the chances are for Republican candidates.

Disguising voter suppression tactics under the guise of “stopping illegals from voting” is one of the worst forms of racism in our country today. Voter suppression remains a serious problem in the United States, as the above tactics disproportionately affect minority, low-income, and elderly voters. To ensure that democracy remains accessible to all, lawmakers, activists, and communities must work together to combat voter suppression and promote equitable access to the ballot box.