{"id":993,"date":"2011-09-22T17:46:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T21:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=993"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:26:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:26:23","slug":"new-state-laws-threaten-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/09\/22\/new-state-laws-threaten-voting-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"New State Laws Threaten Voting Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Corriher\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of discussion recently about a perceived assault on voting rights. There have been\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0on a campaign by Republicans and their supporters to enact stricter voting laws. Many states have\u00a0implemented\u00a0<\/a>shorter early voting periods, stricter rules for absentee ballots, and tougher registration requirements. Twenty states have\u00a0considered\u00a0<\/a>new voter ID requirements, and others have strengthened existing ID rules. Why are state legislatures suddenly so concerned with voting? Republicans warn of voter fraud, but there has been no evidence of widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

Civil rights advocates say these voter ID laws will prevent certain groups from voting, including students and minorities \u2013 two groups that heavily favored President Obama in the 2008 election. Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, warned of \u201ca deliberate and systematic attempt to prevent millions of elderly voters, young voters, students, minority, and low-income voters from exercising their constitutional right to engage in the democratic process.\u201d The Department of Justice (DOJ) is being pressured to stop these laws under the authority granted to it by the Voting Rights Act.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Act\u00a0requires\u00a0<\/a>that jurisdictions\u00a0with a history of voter discrimination obtain \u201cpreclearance\u201d from DOJ or the D.C. District Court before implementing any changes in voting. DOJ is slated to issue a preclearance decision tomorrow on Texas\u2019 new voter ID\u00a0law<\/a>, under which a student ID, federal government employee ID, or Department of Veterans Affairs ID is\u00a0not an acceptable<\/a>\u00a0form of identification.\u00a0 A concealed-weapon permit is sufficient under the law.<\/p>\n

Florida implemented many voting changes this year, and almost all of them have been precleared by DOJ. The state submitted the four most controversial provisions to the D.C. District Court, instead of DOJ. The Secretary of State\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>submitting them to the court would \u201censure the changes were judged on their merits, based solely on facts and applicable law.\u201d One new rule dramatically shortens the time for early voting, from 14 days to eight days. After the 2000 recount fiasco, early voting was a popular bipartisan reform, but Republicans have since changed their minds. One Florida newspaper\u00a0criticized\u00a0<\/a>the legislature for eliminating early voting on the final Sunday before an election,\u00a0a day when\u00a0black churches often mobilize their congregants. The editorial noted that black voters comprised 32 percent of early voters on the final Sunday before the 2008 election.<\/p>\n

These laws clearly represent a trend\u00a0towards stricter requirements for voting, rules that will likely result in fewer votes being cast.\u00a0 Voting rights groups warn they will disproportionately impact minorities, students, and the elderly, because these groups are less likely to have an acceptable ID. These laws demonstrate why the Act\u2019s preclearance requirement is still relevant. Let\u2019s hope President Obama\u2019s reinvigorated DOJ Civil Rights Division takes a hard look at this disproportionate impact.<\/p>\n

These laws also demonstrate the importance of state elections. State legislators exercise wide authority over voting and redistricting. If students, minorities, and the elderly do not pay attention, they may find themselves turned away from the polls on election day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Corriher\u00a0 There\u2019s been a lot of discussion recently about a perceived assault on voting rights. There have been\u00a0media\u00a0reports\u00a0on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-g1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}