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The Voter Values Project has two goals: to learn what issues are important to the voters in 2020 and to research those issues so we can pass along that information. The following thread is devoted to Voting Rights and specifically to, Voter Suppression and Intimidation. <THREAD>
“Voter suppression in the United States has been around longer than the U.S. Constitution. The goal is to manipulate political outcomes by blocking the vote, and the result is a severely compromised democracy that does not reflect the will of the people. #VoterSuppressionis
… legislators can redraw district lines that determine the weight of your vote. Certain communities are particularly susceptible to suppression and in some cases, outright targeted — people of color, students, the elderly, and people with disabilities. http://ACLU.org/news/civil-liberties/block-the-vote-voter-suppression-in-2020/
Gerrymandering is the term used to denote redrawing of district lines to benefit a political party and thereby increase its power. Every 10 years, the national census is conducted, and congressional districts are recalculated, based on that census. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/08/12/how-gerrymandering-in-the-states-could-lead-to-president-trumps-re-election/
Voter ID laws require presentation of specified documents before a resident may vote. People do not carry around a birth certificate and may not own a driving license. For some, the cost to obtain these documents is out of their reach. https://www.prwatch.org/comment/45904
Purging of voter rolls has become popular since the Supreme Court gutted the protections in the Voting Rights Act. A recent Brennan Center study found that 16 million voters were purged from the rolls between 2014 and 2016. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/united-states-history/history-voting-rights-act/
Jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination had the highest purge rates. Limitations on voter registration, reduced number of polling places, and the crippling of the Post Office are also forms of voter suppression. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/22/us-mayors-call-postal-service-cuts-a-grave-concern.html
Voter intimidation is a time-honored and personal form of preventing minorities and people of color from voting.”
And it seems like the Republicans are hard at work:
“Claims about Republican efforts to suppress the vote are fully supported by facts.” https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/inconvenient-truths-about-republican-voter-suppression/
And it seems like the Republicans are hard at work:
“Claims about Republican efforts to suppress the vote are fully supported by facts.” https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/inconvenient-truths-about-republican-voter-suppression/
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) writes that suppression efforts range from the seemingly benign, like voter ID laws and cuts to early voting, to mass purges of voter rolls and systemic disenfranchisement. And long before election cycles even begin … @ACLU @ACLUAZ
If the census fails to be counted accurately, residents of the United States are not granted equitable representation, health care or school funding. The 2020 census was suspended one month early with 60 million households uncounted. https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2020/08/06/immigrant-participation-census-2020-ivan-espinoza-madrigal-and-lauren-sampson
