Thousands of people didn’t get to cast their ballots in the recent Arizona primaries. Hundreds of people were still in line at 11:30pm in Phoenix, more than four hours after polls closed.
One reason it is so hard to vote in Arizona is because the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. As a result, there were 70 percent fewer polling places this year than in 2012 in Phoenix’s county. They wouldn’t have been allowed to cut those polling places if the Voting Rights Act was still intact. These cuts meant that, in a county with more than 4 million residents, there were just 60 polling places. It isn’t clear on what basis polling places were removed, but the implication is that most were in areas with heavy minority voters, although the Bernie team hasn’t actually said so. Fewer polling places discriminates against…. Well, use your imagination.
The Voting Rights Act was an effort to make sure that minorities were not disadvantaged. What has happened is that local State legislators have passed laws gerrymandering constituencies and making it increasingly difficult for poor people to vote. In this way a political party is trying to shore up its waning power when long-term demographics are going the wrong way for it. (based on a report from the Bernie campaign)
A government run by Epicureans would ensure a level playing field for all citizens. Meanwhile, since an Epicurean government and a level playing field are both about as likely as aliens landing from Alpha Centaurus, I personally have to support anyone who seeks to turn round this shameful and deeply corrupt system.
When a Supreme Court decision gutted the Voting Rights Acts in 2013, partisan lawmakers in more than a dozen states rushed to enact voter suppression laws. These laws take many forms — from requiring photo IDs to vote, to cutting back on early voting, eliminating same-day registration, and more — but they are all part of the same concerted effort to strip black Americans of their rights.
Many studies have revealed that the potential impact of these laws, especially on female, minority, low-income, and elderly Americans is real and dangerous. A recent study from UC San Diego shows that turnout for Latino voters was suppressed by more than 10 points in states with strict photo ID laws, while the drop was nearly 13 points for multiracial Americans.
The end result is that millions of Americans may be blocked from voting in one of the current critical election — many of them people of color. Denying these voters an equal voice makes it easier for politicians to push an extreme agenda — including blocking health care access and undermining women’s fundamental rights. This, in addition to gerrymandering constituency boundaries ensures the election of extremists and time-servers, serving the needs of those with deep pockets. Bernie might not be able to win, but he is right.
They’re very simple solutions to all this: compulsory and automatic voter registration, make the ownership of some form of ID compulsory, have boundaries determined by an independent commission like in the UK, Sunday voting to boost turnout and perhaps in the future, online voting. This would make the system fair and effective, increasing participation and ending the partisan debate about voting.
You are absolutely right, but amajority of states are under Republican control and have no incentive at all to help black and latino voters to get to the polls. On the contrary, time is against them and they are desperately trying to make it difficult to register and vote. Eventually the situation will resolve itself, but meanwhile it is very corrupt. It’s all very well purist Epicureans complaining about those of us who pay attention to politics, but all thses shenanigans have real life impacts on ordinary people, as you can see from the current elections – ordinary peop,e feel shut out of the system.