> “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America – People For The American Way
Working to discourage one’s political opponents’ supporters has a long history, but the machinations on display in the last decade, and this election in particular, are offensive.
Election committees are moving polls to difficult-to-reach areas in youth and minority populations, as Jonathan Katz tweets:
Donald Trump is encouraging his supporters to:
> “…go down to certain areas and watch and study, and make sure other people don’t come in and vote five times”
Trump Is Recruiting an Army of Poll Watchers. It’s Even Worse Than It Sounds. [Emphasis mine.]
Pro-Trump trolls are buying fake Clinton ads on Twitter targeting minorities, telling them they can text in their votes (you can’t):
>The recent social media ads target Clinton supporters with the hashtag #ImWithHer and give instructions to “Vote Early” by texting “Hillary” to the number
Some other tactics being deployed, mostly derived from the aforementioned PFAW study:
Burdensome of ID Laws
From my own home state of Arizona:
> In November of 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, which implemented harsh voter identification requirements (as well as proof-of-citizenship requirements—discussed in the next section of this report). The law requires voters who cast a ballot at a polling place on Election Day to present photo identification deemed “acceptable” by Arizona’s Secretary of State, such as a driver’s license, or two alternate forms of ID that include the name or address of the voter such as a utility bill or a bank statement. Such requirements can disenfranchise voters without photo ID by making it hard for them to cast ballots if they live at a residence where someone else, such as a spouse, parent, or roommate pays the bills, or if they are uninformed about the rules. Students, the poor, and senior citizens are among the groups that are most likely to be adversely affected.
Proof-Of-Eligibility as Voter Intimidation
> In this corner of rural Georgia, African-Americans are arrested at a rate far higher than that of whites.
> But the deputy had not come to arrest Mr. Flournoy. Rather, he had come to challenge Mr. Flournoy’s right to vote.
Critics See Efforts by Counties and Towns to Purge Minority Voters from Rolls
Fear-Mongering and Voter Registration
>Such proof-of-citizenship requirements are often rationalized through fear tactics—namely the claim that non-citizens (especially “illegal immigrants”) are attempting to register to vote. But no evidence exists to indicate that this is a problem.
The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America – People For The American Way
Reduced Polling Resources and Lines
In communities where the number of polling places and hours of operation are reduced, resulting long lines impact voter turnout.
> While long lines can suppress the vote in any precinct, evidence indicates that such lines often form at polling places that are frequented by students, people of color, and low-income voters who often do not have the time or the resources to wait many hours.
The New Face of Jim Crow: Voter Suppression in America – People For The American Way
In North Carolina, as one example, Republicans lobbied to limit the hours during which minorities tended to vote:
>Emails uncovered by Reuters through a public records request revealed that local Republican leaders lobbied at least 17 county election boards to limit the hours that voting sites could stay open — particularly to cut down on weekends and evenings, when Democratic voter turnout tends to be higher
North Carolina Republicans conspired to limit early voting to keep African-Americans from the polls
