Black people are no strangers to obstacles getting thrown our way when it comes to voting, and in 2024, we are still ducking. Television, social media and possibly some your own friends are telling you about the efforts to prevent certain people from voting this year.
Some tactics are less legal than others—the recent burning of ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, are prime examples. But other methods are frequently determined by courts to be perfectly legal. Some of these include (primarily white) state officials reducing voting hours and days, enacting new vote restrictions and onerous voter registration requirements, purging countless eligible voters from the rolls, abruptly reshaping voting districts, and targeting certain districts with disproportional polling place closures.
Sources say polling closures have been particularly disproportional about hitting Black and Latino districts since 2012 with about 1,688 reported between 2012 and 2018. A study conducted by The Leadership Conference Education Fund discovered the landmark case Shelby v. Holder, which gutted much of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), allowed government officials to significantly increase poll closures in Black or brown neighborhoods.
“The Shelby decision paved the way for systematic statewide efforts to reduce the number of polling places in Texas (-750), Arizona (-320), and Georgia (-214),” the organization claims in its report “Democracy Diverted.” “Quieter efforts to reduce the number of polling places without clear notice or justification spread throughout Louisiana (-126), Mississippi (-96), Alabama (-72), North Carolina (-29), and Alaska (-6).”
“If they keep taking away polling stations how are people, especially older people who may not have access to the internet or know how to use it, going to be able to vote?” said Elisa Magee, a voter BGX interviewed in Utica, Miss.
Mississippi’s own polling locator website directs most voters to their correct precinct, but the tool is only as effective as the local election commissioners and circuit clerks who update it. One online publication discovered the tool leading voters in 20 precincts to incorrect and outdated locations.
Many people, particularly those with low incomes, those with only a small window of time to vote, or no vehicle find it difficult to cast a ballot with fewer locations. Section 5 of VRA required states and local governments with a history of election discrimination to obtain federal preclearance before making significant changes to voting laws or practices. It was for good reason this included the implementation of mass voter roll purges and dramatic poll closures and reshuffling. When Republican-appointed Supreme Court judges gutted the VRA with their Shelby decision, they gave state and local governments the right to institute onerous changes without preclearance, which forces voters to sue to stop some of the most egregious anti-voter practices themselves.
Leslie Proll, Voting Rights Program senior director and advisor to the NAACP, says officials no longer need to obtain federal preclearance to close polling places, limit hours, or do anything they want. It’s no surprise that in 2024 there are now fewer than 100,000 polling places nationwide, which is half the number from earlier years.
“As long as [Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act] is not the law of the land, local officials can do whatever they want, change things in a hurry and make it very inconvenient [to vote],” Proll said.
Voter advocates say Black and brown voters should refuse to accept the inconvenience of reduced polling places, as well as every other anti-voter tactic the U.S. Supreme Court has legitimized since the Shelby decision.
Recent interviews suggest many voters are also still outraged, and they are voting with angry hearts at all the inconvenience.
“[I vote] because they will do everything in their power to make sure that we don’t,” said Presley Smith a student at Hinds Community College in Raymond.
______
This story is part of our GOTV coverage in partnership with pro-voter nonprofit Faircount. Coverage will continue into November.
Comments