Voters in U.S. counties previously covered by the Voting Rights Act (VRA) will have at least 868 fewer places to cast ballots in the 2016 election than they did previously, according to a new analysis released Friday.
In fact, the report (pdf) from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights finds that in the wake of the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision gutting the VRA, “[c]ounties and states with known records of voting discrimination are closing polling places on a massive scale.” This is among other negative outcomes of the ruling, which Common Dreams has covered extensively.
Many closures happened in places that would have had to gain federal approval to change voting laws prior to the high court’s ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, “which made Section 5 of the VRA inoperable and opened the door to racial discrimination at every juncture of the electoral process,” as the report explains.
While the Leadership Conference acknowledges that “[t]here are justifiable reasons to reduce polling places and consolidations can be executed equitably,” it also points out that “the loss of Section 5 means that there is no process to ensure that reductions are disclosed to the public, are conducted with the input of impacted communities, and do not discriminate against voters of color.”
Indeed, the analysis notes that “[p]olling place closures are a particularly common and pernicious tactic for disenfranchising voters of color. Decisions to shutter or reduce voting locations are often made quietly and at the last minute, making pre-election intervention or litigation virtually impossible. These changes can place an undue burden on minority voters, who may be less likely to have access to public transportation or vehicles, given continuing disparities in socioeconomic resources.”
As Ari Berman writes for The Nation:
With four days to go until the election, the Leadership Conference is urging people to check their polling place locations with the following tools:
Rock the Vote’s Polling Place Finder
League of Women Voters’ Vote411.org
Election Protection Hotline: 866.OUR.VOTE
But in the longer term, the organization is calling on Congress to pass one of two pending bills to restore the VRA. Both pieces of legislation would restore transparency and notice requirements for certain voting changes like polling place closures. “And both include an updated formula for determining which states and counties should have their voting changes—including their proposed polling place reductions and consolidation—subject to federal oversight to ensure they are not racially discriminatory,” the Leadership Conference writes.
However, it concludes: “Congress has yet to advance either bill.”
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