Just after the election it would seem that the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will be hearing a challenge to a core part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Specifically, it would be the portion that requires certain states and areas that have historically discriminated against minorities voting, mostly located in the south, to seek federal approval before changing voting rules.
Many states with new Republican legislatures as a result of the 2010 wave election put in place voting rules that would adversely affect and restrict the minority vote. One Republican in Pennsylvania went as far to say that their new photo I.D. voting rule, which was struck down by the courts before it could be put in effect, would be what would give the state to Mitt Romney during the election.
In Florida, because Republican Governor Rick Scott cut early voting days from 14 down to 8, the vote wasn’t able to be tallied until four days after the election due to the high volume of voters on Election Day. The long lines that resulted because of early voting days being cut are speculated in being an attempt to discourage voter turnout, specifically in minority districts, and swaying the polls towards Republican candidates.
Luckily a lot of these actions that both were and were not successful in being passed resulted in rallying even more minorities to vote in the elections out of anger of their rights being infringed upon in such a blatant way.
I would love for America to be in a place where certain places and legislatures didn’t need the federal government to make sure that their voting rules didn’t infringe upon the rights of certain peoples, but if this prior election has shown us anything, it is that we are clearly not in that place.
If anything, I would argue that instead of just policing the states and areas that are geographically notorious for the worst records of voting discrimination, that we instead apply the same rules to all of America to have a better safeguard against voting discrimination anywhere within our union without treating any one state or area unequally.
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