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Why Voting in This U.S. Election Will Not Be Equal in 2020?
For many years, the United States has been deliberately blocking people from voting (Abrams). For instance, African Americans could not vote until the 19th century. On the other hand, women had also been deterred from taking part in the elections until the 19th century when Congress passed the nineteenth amendment in 1919 (Abrams).
The United States has always taken pride in being the land of freedom. However, people in America are no longer feeling that freedom as far as the November presidential elections are concerned (Acevedo et al. 4). To many, America is going back to the days when it is used to prevent a particular group of people from voting. However, this time around, the country is using more complicated and nuanced barriers invented in the 21st century to prevent people of color and the underprivileged from practicing their democratic rights (Acevedo et al. 4; James and Sead 344).
There are so many ways that America is suppressing voters. Over the last decade, voter ID has been the most common tool for suppressing voters in the US (James and Sead 344). President Trump stated that all voters who go to the voting stations need to present a voter’s ID before they can vote. As a result, different states across the United States require their citizens to have a form of ID before they can vote. However, the problem is not even the ID, but what form of ID is acceptable? (Ali-Smith). The minorities and the poor people in America are more likely to lack the required forms of identification. In addition, most of the native Americans do not have physical addresses. Therefore, they are not likely going to vote in this year’s election. Besides, the COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated voter suppression in the United States. For example, voters in Kentucky were demonstrating to be allowed to cast their votes after the state announcing that some polling stations had to be shut down due to the pandemic.
The United States is also using voter intimidation to prevent particular groups of people from participating in the elections this year. President Trump has stated that his re-election campaign team will hire more than 50,000 poll watchers across the US. Since poll watchers’ work is to challenge some voters’ eligibility, most voters who do not have the right documents will not present themselves to vote.
Voter suppression in the November election is as clear to everyone as possible. Many authors have also come forth with several pointers to indicate that voter suppression is happening in the US. According to Ali-Smith, the United States is purging voters from the voter rolls. Many states have been removing people, either those people that have moved or those that are ineligible. However, some experts state that some states are not taking the necessary steps to ensure that the right people are removed from the voter rolls. According to Brennan Center for Justice, more than 17 million voters have been purged from the voter rolls across the United States between 2016 and 2018 (Abrams).
On the other hand, some authors state that the President is capitalizing on the fear of voter fraud. The President has spent a considerable amount of time stoke fear about the security of the ballots. He stated that the mail-in ballots are a disaster and could easily lead to fraudulent voting. Although fraudulent voting accounts for less than 1% in the last few decades, the President is planting fear in people’s minds that the mail-in voting process is unsafe. He is laying the ground to contest the election because absentee ballots are not going to be legitimate.
The November election gets more complicated with each passing day. More and more experts present evidence to suggest the possible ways the United States is trying to suppress voters in this year’s election. Every claim made by any author is substantial and has no problem whatsoever.
Work Cited
Abrams, Stacey, et al. Voter Suppression in US Elections. University of Georgia Press, 2020.
Acevedo, Mindy, et al. “Ensuring Equal Access to the Mail-in-Ballot Box.” UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 68 (2020): 4.
Ali-Smith, Mustafa. “Don’t Count Me Out! There’s Power in Participation: Voter Suppression & Destabilizing Its Reasonableness.” (2020).
James, Toby S., and Sead Alihodzic. “When Is It Democratic to Postpone an Election? Elections During Natural Disasters, COVID-19, and Emergency Situations.” Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy 19.3 (2020): 344-362.
