Current Barriers to Voting
"All across America over recent years we are seeing deep attempts to suppress voting...id challenges, hours-long voting lines especially in poor areas, suspicious voter list purging ... are all designed to prevent eligible Americans from voting."
- Email Interview, Walter Mondale, Former Vice President, and Former Senator, November 23, 2012
- Email Interview, Walter Mondale, Former Vice President, and Former Senator, November 23, 2012
Source: Voting Rights Obstacles, cartoon by Khalil Bendib
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Although the act eliminated unfair voting practices, modern barriers -new voter ID laws, long lines, gerrymandering techniques- continue to arise. |
"We must ... [protect] our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote... "
- President Obama State of the Union speech, February 12, 2013 |
Voter ID Laws
"...voter...efforts include requiring photo identification in order to register, reducing the time allowed for early voting, ending same-day registration...requiring proof-of-citizenship documents in order to register...new regulations..." - Suppressing Democracy 101 Website |
"Current state of voter ID laws across the country"
Source: Washington Post, October 2, 2012 |
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Proponents
Source: BET
"Almost three-quarters of all Americans support the idea that people should have to show photo identification to vote...according to a new Washington Post poll." - The Washington Post, August 11, 2012 |
Opponents
"The impact of ID requirements is even greater for...people of color... Not only are minority voters less likely to possess photo ID, but they are also more likely than white voters to be selectively asked for ID at the polls.."
- Brennan Center for Justice, September 12, 2006 |
Long Lines
Early voters on Nov 5, 2012, in Columbia, S.C.
Source: The Daily Beast |
"The extraordinarily long lines deterred or prevented voters from waiting to vote,” the lawsuit states. “Some voters left the polling sites upon learning of the expected wait, and others refused to line up altogether. These long lines and extreme delays unduly and unjustifiably burdened the right to vote.”
- New York Times, November 3, 2012 |
Early voting lines in Miami, Florida
Source: New York Times, November 3, 2012 |
Voter Dilution by Gerrymandering
"Blacks gain seats but not power in increasingly Republican dominated statehouses. It is partisan gerrymandering under the guise of a civil-rights crusade." - The Daily Beast, November 5, 2012 |
"Sauce for the Gerrymander"
Source: American Thinker |
"In the Supreme Court case of Shaw v. Reno (1993) and again in Miller v. Johnson (1999), the court ruled that gerrymandering based solely on racial data is unconstitutional." - PBS, The.Gov |
"The VRA must encompass both forces and the balance of tensions.Consider the metaphor of a great river, like the Colorado, over years carving a transformation in the landscape. But even as it does so, there is accompanying erosion and an accumulation of choking silt that saps the river of its former force."
- Howard Law Journal, Christopher Edley, Jr. , Dean, Law School, University of Berkeley, October 28, 2005
- Howard Law Journal, Christopher Edley, Jr. , Dean, Law School, University of Berkeley, October 28, 2005