Slicing and Dicing Democratic Rights

The Racist History of Voter Suppression

By Meg Morrigan

According to the Brennan Center, a progressive institute in New York, 2021 was a  banner year for voter restriction legislation. There were more than 440 bills introduced in 49 states that contained provisions that restrict access to voting, and 34 laws in 19 states were passed. If these seem like staggering numbers, it’s because they are; 2021 saw the most voter restriction laws of any year since 2011 when the Brennan Center began tracking that data. These laws have been introduced overwhelmingly by Republican legislators, often in direct response to the “Big Lie” of election fraud that led to the January 6 raid on the Capitol Building.

While these laws might not “hack, but slice” away at access to the polls, the aggregate effect is millions of people’s voices are being silenced, and the majority of them people of color. This is being done intentionally to disenfranchise BIPOC people, working people, and younger voters, and encourage poll results favorable to older, whiter, more conservative voters — the Republicans’ base. These racist attacks on our democracy are the true sources of election fraudulency. 

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Since the beginning of the Reconstruction Era, concerted effort has been made to restrict and suppress Black voters. Even as the 13, 14, and 15th Amendments were ratified — ending slavery in the US, extending citizenship to everyone “born or naturalized” in the United States, and prohibiting states from restricting a person’s right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”  — state legislatures began to impose voter qualification laws that, while on the surface seemed racially neutral, in practice worked to disenfranchise the Black vote. 

These became the basis forJim Crow laws and racial segregation throughout the South. But even the overturning of these racist laws during the Civil Rights era did not end attempts to marginalize the voices of people of color. Instead, as federal legislation became more explicitly inclusive, reactive state propositions became more subtle in their language, but no less nefarious in their purpose. 

Literacy tests became English proficiency requirements. Voter ID laws targeted communities of color. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 1975 amendment to protect language minorities were watershed moments of progress, but they have been all but completely overturned as of 2013 with Shelby County vs Holder, which overturned preclearance — the system by which jurisdictions with a history of racism were required to gain federal approval before changing their election laws. This decision has set the stage for the last decade of increasing voter suppression, especially among the Southern states.

Communities of Color Disproportionately Affected 

In Georgia, the Election Integrity Act of 2021 (so named to indicate the bill was a response to the supposed fraud of the 2020 election) signed into law by Governor Kemp in March 2021, completely overhauls the election process of the state. The bill criminalizes giving out food and water to people waiting in poll lines, when Black and Brown communities throughout Georgia frequently suffer hours-long lines at the ballot box. It outlaws mobile ballot boxes that are placed at pre-set locations — something that was done only in Fulton County, which has the state’s highest Black population. It limits drop box locations and creates identification requirements for mail-in ballots, both policies directed at creating obstacles for voters of color, young, working class, and other marginalized voters, while expanding early in-person voting and other practices that benefit older, richer, whiter, more conservative voters.

SB-1 in Texas also introduced a wide range of restrictions that target the racially diverse Harris County, where innovations such as 24 hour and drive-thru polling stations, which the county introduced during the 2020 pandemic, have been outlawed. The bill also creates onerous voter ID requirements for mail-in voting, curbs the abilities of candidates or groups to provide absentee ballots, creates new requirements for voters who use an assistant, and more — all policies that disenfranchise BIPOC, disabled, working class, and other marginalized voters.

[Pull out quote:] States are being sued by civil rights groups, but we can hardly depend on the courts.

The Montana Ballot Interference Prevention Act (BIPA) passed in 2020 epitomizes legislation aimed at making voting harder for Native Americans. Montana faces unique challenges when it comes to conducting elections due to the far flung, rural population in the state, which makes in-person polling incredibly difficult and mail-in ballots a near necessity. But Native Americans face even greater barriers. Many reservations and most rural parts of Montana have limited access to postal services, often having no home mail service, shared postal boxes, and long drives to post offices. In these conditions, tribal communities have developed organized get-out-the-vote efforts that involve distributing and collecting ballots and delivering them to the election offices. However, these practices are now being restricted under BIPA, making voting nearly impossible for many.

A New Civil Rights Era

While there is indeed a worrying trend of voter restriction, this does not paint the whole picture. Many other states passed legislation expanding access to voting in 2021, creating a dichotomy between states. There have been multiple attempts in 2021 and already in 2022 to pass progressive voter rights legislation at the federal level. These acts, had they been passed, would have gone a long way towards cutting the legs out from under the states’ restrictive bills, guaranteeing federal protection of access to voting. But the future is quite grim for voting rights or any other progressive legislation in the developing shadow of the midterms. Of course, many states are being sued by civil rights groups over their heinous bills, but we can hardly depend on the courts, which have been stacked with Republicans for years, to rule unfavorably towards their political allies.

We can´t act as if the Democratic Party is a real ally to the multiracial working class –  in fact Democratic Senators Sinema and Manchin have been two of recent history’s biggest civil right obstructionists, refusing to support filibuster reform and consequently killing any hope of Senate passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 

Citizens United and the unlimited power of SuperPACs won Biden his presidency, and the Democrats depend primarily on corporate lobbyists, not the working class, to pass their policies. A democratic system where every person got one vote would necessitate the abolition of the electoral college.  The disproportional representation of the Senate creates an undemocratic power imbalance. Most people have no democracy in their workplaces — where they spend a third of their lives.  The media is owned by corporate interests and generally promotes pro-capitalist, pro-status quo propaganda. Working, poor, and oppressed people need an independent political body that is beholden to and fights for them. 

Nearly six decades after the height of the victories of the Civil Rights Era, with many of the victories of that time having been gutted, rolled back, and declawed, we are back to fighting for basic enfranchisement for all. It just goes to show that every little concession that is wrought from the hands of the ruling class must be constantly fought for, struggled over, again and again in the face of Capital. 

As socialists we defend democracy, and the ongoing suppression of voter rights in the US is a threat to what little democracy we have. Not only must socialists fight for the enfranchisement of all under the current system, but we must fight for legislation that attacks and abolishes these undemocratic institutions. We should agitate in favor of legislation that enshrines voting rights, but we should also push for the PRO Act and other pro-labor legislation that makes organizing in the workplace more powerful and effective. 

We should fight for the overturning of Citizens United and get lobbyists and capitalist interests out of the government. Passing reforms such as these would help the multiracial working class become more conscious of its power, come together as an independent political force, and eventually give us the strength to be able to create a workers’ government, a more direct democracy wherein the true needs of the multiracial working class can finally be served.