Fight Voter Suppression

By Jessica Newfield (MPA Candidate '21)

The right to representation is the foundation of a functioning democracy. Though the US has seen centuries of voter suppression laws and actions depriving Americans of the right to vote, the 2020 election has made it more blatant than ever that this right is still being denied to  American citizens. 

New York Times writer and former White House reporter Jim Rutenberg states that “Voter fraud is an adaptable fiction, and the president has tailored it to the moment. Even as the coronavirus pandemic poses a grave obstacle to his re-election, the crisis is providing him an opportunity to do what no other president has done before him: use the full force of the federal government to attack the democratic process, suppress the votes of American citizens and spread grievance and suspicion among his followers.”

The rhetoric around “voter fraud” is not a new one. The 1965 Voting Rights Act continues to be challenged and stripped by political institutions to disenfranchise people of color. In the 2016 election, many US states imposed stricter identity laws for registration and purged many voters’ names from registration lists. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, more than 17 million voters were purged from these lists nationwide.

Interviewed by NPR about her recent documentary, All In: The Fight For Democracy, voting rights activist, lawyer and Former US representative Stacey Abrams points out: "We have to understand that purging does not simply occur because someone has died or has moved out of the state (...) The use of this purging led to a disproportionate number of communities of color being disenfranchised. And many didn't know they were purged until they showed up to vote."

With this historical precedent and in the current context of a pandemic in which voter turnout is now measured remotely and relies on mail-in ballots, verifying your registration status in your state and sending in a backup mail-in ballot could be pivotal to election results next month. The Trump administration’s spread of misinformation regarding voter fraud is nothing but deliberate. 

Here are a few simple steps you can take TODAY to prevent voter suppression:

1) “Put your oxygen mask on first” and register to vote.

• If you vote out of California, go here.
• If you’re a student with a permanent address in California, go here. 

2) Generally across the US, if you think you were automatically registered but haven’t received your mail-in ballot yet, you may have been taken off the registration list or your mail-in ballot was rejected. Every state has different laws related to voter registration. Check your registration status!

3) If you’re an American who lives abroad, there are even greater delays to receiving your ballot, especially if your state’s county Election Office doesn’t have the right address or a different signature on file. Print and send a Federal Write-In Backup Ballot! Don’t wait. See how to get your overseas ballot here. 

4) Donate your time and get fellow citizens registered through phone banking. Give some extra attention to the swing states.  

5) Use virtual networks and communities to encourage others to perform their civic duty. Share on social media information about how to vote. Instagram has a linked ‘register to vote’ button. Use it.

Until voter registration is a fully automated, standardized system and accorded to ALL American citizens, we have to do our due diligence to break the cycle of voter suppression.