Voter Suppression

Voter suppression is any measure or strategy that reduces voter registration or voter turnout among members of a specific political party or minority group. Voter suppression tactics can be found in political systems around the world, but the United States, in particular, has a long history of voter suppression. Through the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments during the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), the United States granted citizenship to former slaves and prohibited voting restrictions on the basis of race. Despite the wide-reaching effects of these “Reconstruction Amendments”, African-Americans faced continued barriers to voting, especially in the Southern States. In the South, African-Americans were met with intimidation and violence. Several of these states passed “Jim Crow Laws,” which sought to enforce racial segregation and prevent African-Americans from voting through methods such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses, which stated a person could not vote unless their grandfather had voted. 

Some of these Jim Crow laws remained in place until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, two landmark laws that helped to increase voter registration and turnout among racial minorities. For decades, the Voting Rights Act (also known as the VRA) effectively limited key voter suppression tactics, but the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder struck down a section of the VRA and made it easier for states to pass restrictive voting laws. Since 2013, there has been a sizable increase in voter suppression laws, the majority of which have discriminated against Black voters in Southern states.

One of the most common forms of voter suppression that states have enacted in the last decade is voter ID laws, which require voters to provide some form of identification before registering to vote or casting their ballots. While proponents of voter ID laws argue that they help to reduce voter fraud, such laws typically place an unfair burden on racial minorities, who may be less likely to have IDs. The reasons include the time and cost barriers to obtaining an acceptable form of identification such as driver’s licenses and passports. Many communities of color also rely on public transportation, reducing the need for a license. Currently, 35 states require their citizens to show some form of identification before voting. Other common forms of voter suppression include limitations on early voting and absentee voting, voting procedure disinformation, closures of polling locations, and voter registration restrictions. In addition, some states have enacted new types of legislation that make voting more difficult, including laws that expand the authority of poll watchers, which leads to increased voter intimidation and harassment, and laws that punish poll workers for providing food and water to voters standing in long lines.

Voters continue to be suppressed in the United States because politicians seek to limit ballot access among historically marginalized groups of voters for their own benefit. Active proponents of laws that suppress voters are often Republican politicians and right-wing groups. Stricter voting laws are typically placed under the guise of protecting against voter fraud, especially voter ID requirements. However, voter fraud is extremely rare within the United States and is unlikely to have any significant impact on the political process. Regardless of how voter suppression is justified, it is a tool used by politicians to win or maintain power by preventing those who may threaten their power from exercising their right to vote.

Efforts to pass voter suppression laws have grown over the last decade. In the first five years after the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision, 23 states introduced restrictive voting laws. In 2021 alone, 19 states have enacted 33 laws that restrict access to voting, posing challenges to both mail-in and in-person voting around the country. States with newly passed voter suppression laws include Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Texas, and Alabama. Despite the recent wave of voter suppression laws, many states have enacted laws to make access to voting easier. Several state legislatures have made proactive efforts to prevent voter suppression, including 20 states that have passed automatic voter registration policies. In Massachusetts, newly passed laws this year will expand access to early voting and make voting more accessible for voters with disabilities, and bills that improve mail-in voting and voter registration opportunities are currently making their way through the state legislature.

Voter suppression has taken the national stage in recent years, especially during the 2020 presidential election. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, access to voting became an issue for a large portion of the country’s population. Fears about leaving home given the infectious nature of the coronavirus forced many voters to cast their ballots via mail. During election season, several states passed new laws that made voting and registering to vote more difficult, and attempts to undermine mail-in voting were abundant, most notably with regards to Republican-led efforts to dismantle the U.S. Postal Service. Restricting mail-in ballots serves as an additional measure of voter suppression specifically among the college student population. As a considerable number of young adults leave their home state to seek higher education, they may want to continue voting at home and restrictive laws would pose significant barriers to access. On the other hand, many states made changes to their voting laws to accommodate for the effects of the pandemic. More than 30 states postponed their primary elections, extended registration deadlines, or increased early voting periods in an effort to make voting easier. Many of these efforts were challenged by Republican lawmakers, and in the wake of Joe Biden’s victory in November 2020, Republicans in state legislatures have continued their efforts to introduce stricter voting laws.

However, there is an expansive and fast-growing network of anti-voter suppression groups and leaders throughout the nation. Notable groups include the ACLU, the NAACP, and the League of Women Voters. As the practice of voter suppression has expanded, groups have formed specifically to combat these suppressive laws, such as Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action. These groups and leaders spend much of their time and resources pushing for the passage of legislation in both state legislatures and in Congress. Politicians at the federal level continue to propose laws to counteract voter suppression, such as the For the People Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the Native American Voting Rights Act, which seek to counteract voter suppression and improve access to voting. However, most of these bills are unlikely to pass due to widespread opposition among congressional Republicans. 

The impact that voter suppression will have on this year’s midterm elections will depend on the way in which state districts are redrawn by legislatures across the country, given the popularity of gerrymandering on both sides of the political spectrum. It remains to be seen how successful states will be in expanding or preventing voting access before Election Day in 2022, but voter suppression is likely to have a large impact no matter what. Control of the House and the Senate will be at stake in 2022, as well as a number of high-profile statewide races, and voter suppression tactics have the potential to influence the outcomes of these elections. Voter suppression will greatly impact the ways in which political candidates run their campaigns in the upcoming election cycle, and it is likely to be a significant political issue for years to come.

Nate Hall ’25 & Elena Lowinger ’25