A sweeping voter suppression effort is taking place across America, and it could give the 2020 election to Donald Trump.
A new study finds that in the six years since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, nearly 1,700 polling places have been closed in 13 states—most in counties with large minority populations.
Republican poll closings and voter suppression laws should be a front page scandal, but the corporate media is totally ignoring it.
Common Dreams is sounding the alarm before these voter suppression laws decide the next president.
In 2013, the Supreme Court decided in
Shelby County v. Holder that precincts with histories of racial discrimination no longer had to get approval of election changes before making them.
What followed was a massive wave of poll closures, especially in counties with large Black and Latinx populations. State legislatures also passed Voter ID laws and other provisions meant to suppress typically Democratic voters from getting to the polls.
North Carolina passed a Voter ID law and also got rid of Sunday voting, admitting that Black communities were more likely to vote on Sundays. Texas has closed 750 polling places, 75 in Dallas County, which is 41% Latino and 22% Black.
One of the most egregious offenders has been Georgia, where voter suppression tactics helped Brian Kemp defeat Stacy Abrams for governor. Kemp, then the secretary of state, was responsible for throwing out more than 50,000 voter registrations—70% of them from Black voters. Georgia also closed 214 polling places, including more than 80% of voting locations in Warren County—which is 61% Black. After the election, hundreds of complaints were made about hours-long lines and discarded provisional ballots.
Our democracy is at risk from these insidious voter suppression tactics—and yet none of the major media outlets are covering it. If we’re going to stop these poll closures, we need independent news sources that will shine a bright light on this corruption.
