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By Beck Heslop
Voter suppression has taken on a number of forms in US history. Since the nineteenth century, it has been achieved by various tactics. For example, drawing district lines to advantage one party (gerrymandering) and threatening financial, physical, or legal penalties for ‘improper’ voting (voter intimidation). In the 2020 presidential election, voter suppression can be seen through a refusal to adapt voting methods in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 has already proven a challenge during primaries, the round of voting where people decide who will represent each party in November’s presidential election. Usually, 58% of poll workers are over the age of 60. This means many poll workers are sitting out this election due to concerns over the risk of infection, exacerbated by lack of government provisions to keep staff safe. In response, thousands of polling stations across the US closed during the primaries. Even where stations remained open, workers complained about inadequate resources and prohibitively long queues.
During Los Angeles’ Democratic primaries this March, WiFi issues, faulty equipment and paper shortages compounded the issue of polling station closures. Voters faced queues of up to four hours at 5 pm. Polls were due to close at 8 pm, leading the Bernie Sanders campaign to file an emergency injunction to get the stations to remain open an additional two hours. But this did not solve the problem of long waits, with many individuals leaving frustrated before they had cast their votes. Even for those who did wait in the long lines, research indicates they are less likely to participate in future elections. So not only were obstacles to voting not overcome, in some cases, they were constructed.
Admittedly, closure of polling stations is not a new phenomenon. Between 2014 and 2018, 1,173 polling stations were closed after a Supreme Court Ruling reduced election oversight. The number of polling stations in some counties fell below statutory levels even before 2020. But Covid-19 has escalated closures across the country. Kentucky typically has 3,600 polling stations across the state, but this year only 200 were operating. Just one of these locations had to serve over half a million registered voters, the majority of whom were Black. Less staff, more thorough cleaning routines, and social distancing measures mean that voting has become a long (sometimes impossible) task for many.
One solution to these pitfalls would be mail-in voting. However, President Trump’s re-election campaign has been taking numerous steps in an attempt to block its widespread implementation. For example, the campaign is suing New Jersey and Nevada for their plans to send a mail-in ballot to all of their state’s registered voters. The suits cite an unfounded concern over voter fraud. Trump has also taken to Twitter to push the idea that millions of people are illegally voting through the mail-in voting system, despite there being no evidence of this.
The appointment of Trump donor Louis DeJoy as head of the United States Postal Service (USPS) has also raised suspicions. In his position, DeJoy has made a number of changes, from removing some mail-sorting machines and mail collection boxes, to stopping overtime for postal workers. According to postal workers, these new policies have slowed delivery times. Actor Misha Collins reported that it took 20 days for a letter he sent to this own address to arrive this August. As it stands, the majority of states will only count a mail-in ballot if it arrives by election day. This means that even if a voter mails in their ballot on time, their vote may not be counted. So, delays could mean fewer people’s votes are counted.
A non-partisan law and policy organisation has estimated that it would cost approximately $4 billion to have a safe, secure, and free election in November. However, Republicans have blocked this funding in Congress, only allocating $400 million (just 10% of the estimated requirement) to expanding voting measures. Explaining this move, Trump told Fox and Friends (a morning news show), that if the Democrats’ proposed budget passed, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again”. Whether greater voter turnout would favour the Democratic party is unclear, but Trump’s motive is not. The Republican party’s only goal this November is to secure another four years of the Trump presidency, not a fair and free election.
In a democracy, having a high voter turnout is essential to the appointment of a truly representative government. Taking measures to prevent more people from voting - or refusing to take measures that would make voting more accessible - is antithetical to democracy, and is voter suppression.
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