How to Stop Voter Suppression... Permanently

» KEY POINTS

• In order to maintain power, a certain Political Party has attempted to restrict access to the ballot box because the fewer people who vote, the better they do. These efforts have happened mostly in the State legislatures that they control, but there are efforts to move to a national level.
• The only way to stop this and permanently bolster voter access is with a set of Constitution Amendments.
• Beyond just making it more convenient to cast a ballot and eliminate various methods of suppression, the people of the United States need an actual right to vote that they sorely lack today—and a compulsion to do so to go along with that right.

While the changes made to voting in the previous chapter are a good beginning, they are not nearly enough to truly end both intentional systematic voter suppression and unintended repression caused by the flaws in our system and society. As a start, something similar as was done with the President and Vice President would have to be done with the House of Representatives. The Senate is a slightly different story since it is supposed to controlled by the States, but the idea would be same. Both of these will be discussed in the next chapter. For now, though, there is a much bigger issue that we have yet to address.

Since the election of Democrats Joe Biden as President of the United States and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as Senators from Georgia in a runoff election, the Republican Party has been in a scramble. Despite the massive amount of gerrymandering to have a higher proportion of control than their numbers would normally allow, the trends continue to move away from the Republican Party’s favor. Areas that were Republican strongholds are becoming competitive; areas that were competitive are becoming Democratic strongholds. Demographics have been changing at a rapid pace, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to reverse these losses, the Republican Party has two avenues. The first is a grassroots movement to find more voters and attract them to support their cause either by demonstrating the superiority of the Republican platform or by changing the platform to get disinterested people involved. They are going about this with the latter by becoming more populist and moving away from positions that would be considered sacrosanct to a Republican of just a decade ago. Standing by a long-held belief and letting the chips fall where they may is not the policy of the modern Republican Party.

Still, drumming up support from new and reluctant voters will take time and will not guarantee victory in the short term. Unfortunately, the Political Parties in the United States only care about one thing: getting more votes than their opponents (Democrats are no different in this regard). The margins of victory around the country are razor thin in these competitive races. Thus, if their opponents are getting ever so slightly more votes than they are and they cannot find enough people to vote, the logical solution is to get less people to vote in general, especially people most likely to vote for their opponents.

In order to accomplish this, within three months of Joe Biden being sworn in as President, Republicans in 43 States had proposed over 250 bills to restrict access to the ballot box. Since that time, there have only been more of these propositions, with many of them passing through their legislatures and being signed into law by their Governors. These acts take many forms—from limiting the ability to get a mail-in-ballot to restricting the availability of polling stations. In response, Cinde Weatherby of the League of Women Voters Texas noted:

If you can name an improvement, there’s a bill that’s been filed to try and eliminate it.

To be fair, there are efforts to fight these restrictions. For instance, on March 5, 2021 I received an email from Representative David Cicilline (D-RI) that stated in part:

Earlier this week, the House passed the For The People Act (H.R.1), a sweeping reform package that returns power in Washington to the American people... This landmark legislation will fix what is broken in our democracy. It expands access to the ballot, reduces the corrupting influence of corporate money in political campaigns, and restores ethics and integrity in government. I’m especially pleased that it includes my proposals to make it easier to vote, require greater transparency from presidential candidates, and limit the influence of corporations over our government.

You can listen to Representative Cicilline’s speech on the House floor here:

As noble as the ideals of this legislation are, they are simply not enough as there will be a continual tension between it and the States attempting to limit access to certain people’s voices. If this act somehow passes in the Senate (it will not with current filibuster rules and no Republican support), it will most likely face lawsuits that will attempt to overthrow the provisions. The problem comes back to one simple truth:

You do not have a right to vote.

Sure, Amendments to the Constitution say that your right to vote cannot be restricted due to race (15th), sex (19th), failure to pay a poll or any other tax (24th), or being over 18 years old (26th)—the Constitution does not explicitly give the people the right to vote We will not get into the history of why that is here, but the ability for people to vote pretty much comes from the 10th Amendment that notes that any power the Federal Government does not claim as its own belongs to the States. Over the past couple of centuries and as recently as the 2020 election, the Supreme Court has held up again and again that voting is a power vested in the States in part because it is not a power vested in the Federal Government.

As such, there is no choice of the matter. In order to avoid someone taking away our access to voting, we first need to have a right to vote! And the only way we can have a right to vote is if we have a set of Constitutional Amendments so that voting is included within the sphere of control of the Federal Government.

» GAINING THE RIGHT TO VOTE

There are several key elements that are used to stop people from voting, not the least of which is getting and staying registered. Therefore, that is the most logical place to begin Amending the Constitution:

All eligible voters of the United States shall be automatically registered to Vote and be provided all necessary materials and information in order to give their vote.

Why does anyone need to register to vote at all? There is nothing in the Constitution that says voter access should be restricted; quite the contrary, as previously noted the 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments all deal with removing restrictions on voting in one form or another. The 24th Amendment, Clause 1 in particular states:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

It could be (and has been) argued that registering to vote is yet another type of tax. Tax does not have to be money, but it can be time or meeting criteria that States set up. There are active lawsuits that deal with States setting up restrictions for voter registration, for purging voter rolls, and for other forms of refusing to allow people to vote due to so-called discrepancies. Voting should not be abridged in any way and the Constitution already does not give any leeway in this. Now, this Amendment would codify that certainty and not just sustain it implicitly.

The easier it is to register, the higher the turnout. Looking at the Voting Age Population (VAP) turnout percentages for 2016, the eight States with the highest values all had same day voter registration (Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Vermont, and Michigan). Among all the States with same day voter registration, the VAP was just over 56% compared to 54% of those States without. If we exclude California and Hawai’i—two of the three lowest VAP States (Texas being the other) because of reasons of their geography and lack of competition—that value jumps to almost 62%. Those numbers are clear: the easier it is to register and vote without restriction, the higher turnout is. It is so clear that since the 2016 election, four more States had added the same option in time for the 2020 election.

In order to be an informed voter, the government often prints out materials to explain particular items or what is being voted on—in other words, a voter’s handbook. All of this should be readily available to the people. That is not the only material that should be provided, though. One of the best ways to understand what is going to be on the ballot is to have the ballot, and as such the following Amendment should be added:

All eligible voters of the United States shall be provided a ballot at the commencement of the Election timeframe. This ballot shall be able to be submitted by all methods as have been made available by law during the Election timeframe.

There are not a lot of examples in the United States, but the three States that do have automatic mail ballot voting (Colorado, Oregon, and Washington) have a combined VAP of over 61% compared to the rest of the States with about 54%. It should be noted that Colorado also has same day registration and is a “battleground” State, so it is hitting all the right checkboxes. Additionally, another 19 States have laws that allow counties or other municipalities to have entirely vote-by-mail elections if they so choose. Altogether, the data is probably not enough to base a statistical analysis on, especially since that is not the complete point of this Amendment.

States like Colorado do not just force everyone to vote by mail. While the ballots are sent out to all eligible voters, the voters can then mail it back, drop it off at a designated polling box, or vote in person at a polling station. That is what the second part of this Amendment is talking about. Today, the ways to vote might consist of by mail, by a drop-box, early in person at a designated location, or directly at the polling stations. In the future, though, maybe elections via the Internet will be safe and secure. Perhaps there is another method we have not quite figured out how to implement yet that would be easier and more accurate. In any case, all methods should be made available for the people to vote.

Therefore, sending out the mail ballot ahead of time could be considered just another piece of election material. In the (at least) 3-week timeframe that voting would happen, voters could use any of the methods available to them, not just the mail ballot itself—which then could just be informational in that case. It will give voters the opportunity to be informed and no room to complain that every opportunity was not granted to get their vote in.

That said, there is one last measure that can be used to increase turnout and participation.

All eligible voters within the United States are required to vote in Federal elections unless unable to physically or mentally do so or have been granted an exception by law. Congress shall lay a levy on those who fail to submit ballots without meeting an exception.

You did not think you were going to get away without having a responsibility in all of this, did you? Yes, for all of this and the prior chapter the onus has fallen on the government to change, but that does not mean there are not civic duties for the people.

Compulsory voting would be impossible in the United States right now because it would violate the 1st Amendment. One could easily argue that forcing a person to vote could be considered a type of speech that someone may not want to give. Because of that, an Amendment would be needed to make it part of the Constitution in order to have equal weight.

Others think of compulsory elections like those used in North Korea. Yes, everyone must “vote”, but there is only one item to vote on and the answer is “Yes” no matter what, so it is not a real democracy. However, countries closer to our own like Australia, Belgium, Brazil, and plenty of others do have a compulsory system and see voter turnout rates in the 90% or above range. One of the key difference makers is the fine for those who fail to vote. Many countries that have compulsory voting do not have a fine or do not enforce it, and the rates of participation are noticeably lower.

Some may fear the idea of an uneducated or uninterested class of people being involved in the voting process who would not otherwise participate. Studies show, however, that because of the compulsion, interest in the political process and desire to have one’s views be heard increases. And yes, the correlation exists that those who are more disadvantaged are less likely to vote and thus perpetuate the cycle. Just giving people the ability to have their voice be heard is one step, but it is another entirely to fuse their voice to the chorus.

There are exceptions, of course, that must be accounted for. Being in a physical state where voting is impossible or having a mental debilitation could be reasons for exclusion. Others may have religious reasons for not voting, or there are laws that restrict certain classes of people (think people in prison). As such, Congress would be allowed to create and maintain that list of exceptions.

Plus, nothing is stopping someone from returning their ballot blank or filling it in with nonsense. Nothing is stopping people from doing that now! There were over 763,000 write-in votes for President in 2016, and a large number of votes were for fictional characters like Mickey Mouse and Elmer Fudd, or non-humans like the deceased gorilla Harambe. At the time of this writing, only limited details have been released for the 2020 election, but you can expect more of the same. What we do know for sure is that there were far fewer write-ins and “none of the above” selections, coming in just under 174,000 votes combined.

Studies have shown that while disengaged people may start off with more comedy or protest votes, over time they tend to vote for “real” candidates. Consider the reason for many of these choices—even among the limited constituents—as a response to living in an area where their vote makes no impact on the outcome. The 2020 election was felt as more consequential and as a result the engagement levels increased, as did the picking of specific candidates.

Of course, there will always be jokers, anti-establishment types, and general protesters, but that is their right. Should we find that compulsory voting in the field is not as effective as hoped, Congress could always lower the fine to $0 and therefore there would be no compulsion mechanism. That is one of the reasons for allowing Congress to control the rate as opposed to building it into the Constitution.

The government has a responsibility to the people of the United States; but how can the government be responsible if the people do not fulfill their duty to it? And the duty of the people is to vote.

The above piece is an excerpt from Always Divided, Never United: And Other Stories During a Time of Pandemics and Politics by J.P. Prag, available at booksellers worldwide.

Learn more about author J.P. Prag at www.jpprag.com.

An earlier version of this article appeared on Medium.