“Florida has a grotesque history of racial discrimination… For the past 20 years,
the majority in the Florida Legislature has attacked the voting rights of its Black constituents.”
Federal District Court Judge U.S. District Judge Mark Walker striking down a Florida voter restriction law
“It’s just a matter of how quickly it’s going to get reversed.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in response
After the Supreme Court eviscerated key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (amended as recently as 2008) in 2013 – striking down as archaic provisions governing specified states with clear histories of racial voting restrictions – many clung to the hope that the remaining Section 2 of that act, which outlawed voter discrimination, would still protect minority voters from restrictive legislation. Indeed, every state that was covered in the expunged section of the Voting Rights Act immediately reenacted voting restrictions.
But last year, in Brnovich, Attorney General of Arizona vs Democratic National Committee, the Supreme Court upheld an Arizona voting restriction the resulted in de facto discrimination against minorities, holding that if the law did not, in clear language on its face posit a direct discriminatory directive, the Court would not intervene. As noted by NBC News on July 1, 2021: “‘This significantly dilutes the Voting Rights Act,’ said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. ‘Minority groups will now have to meet a much higher standard beyond showing that a change presents a burden to voting. It puts a thumb on the scale for the states.’” Was Section 2 effectively dead as well?
Red states everywhere delighted, some even expanding their initial contractions of voting rights by even further restrictions. For example, Georgia House Bill 1464 is wending its way through the legislature and possibly up to a willing governor’s signature. “The measure, earlier passed by the House, would let the Georgia Bureau of Investigation look into election fraud without an invitation from other officials, would create extensive new chain-of-custody requirements for handling ballots, would allow only the State Election Board to accept private donations for election administration and would let people physically inspect paper ballots after an election…
“The new bill has raised alarms among voting rights groups still angry over last year’s restrictive voting law, which reduced the time to request an absentee ballot, stripped power from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and severely rolled back the pandemic-driven expansion of absentee ballot drop boxes. But critics of Georgia elections have asked the committee to add further rules aimed at preventing what they believe is widespread fraud. Investigations and recounts after the 2020 election found no significant fraud.
“One target of officials’ ire was a proposed requirement to count blank pieces of ballot paper, which officials said would provide no security boost. Joel Natt, the deputy chairman of the Forsyth County election board, showed off a ream of paper, and said his county would have to perform three separate checks on each package, including trying to count all 500 sheets and checking the weight of the paper.” Jeff Amy writing for the March 29th Associated Press.
As noted in the above opening quotes, the battleground on voter restrictions has refocused on Florida, where voting stations in minority neighborhoods are notoriously scarce, and new voting hours target reducing voting hours when minorities normally attend church services. Long lines, distant voting stations (from minority communities) during restricted voting hours and fewer means of voting are the natural result of those Florida laws. But…
“U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee blocked the state from enforcing provisions aimed at reducing the use of drop boxes for ballots, making it more difficult for third-party organizations to collect voter registration forms, and banning groups from offering food, water and other aid to people waiting in line to vote… Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for reelection and is also considered a top Republican contender for the 2024 presidential election, signed the bill into law last year.
“The legislation is among several sweeping voting restrictions passed by Republican-controlled states following Republican former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him… In a 288-page opinion that followed a trial early this year, Walker said the legislation, known as Senate Bill 90, built upon two decades of discriminatory voting laws from the Florida legislature aimed at strengthening Republican power.” Joseph Ax, Reuters April 1st.Walker also imposed a ten-year prior judicial approval requirement on any further Florida attempts to add additional or replacement voter restrictions.
Republicans, aware of the Supreme Court aversion to ruling against both voting restrictions and gerrymandering, scoffed: “[Republican] Senate President Wilton Simpson called the ruling ‘highly unprofessional, inaccurate and unbecoming of an officer of the court.’… The Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives, Chris Sprowls, criticized Walker for making ‘unsupported inferences’ and characterized the opinion as ‘a predetermined outcome in search of an overlong and poorly reasoned rationale.” Reuters. Experts concur with DeSantis that the ruling faces a high probability of being reversed.
This tsunami of voter manipulation in red states is obvious, but smaller ripples exist in blue states too: “A judge struck down New York’s new congressional and legislative maps on Thursday [3/31] as an illegal gerrymander, dealing a setback to Democrats who were expected to benefit heavily from the new political lines.
“In a ruling, State Supreme Court [actually a trial court with a fancy name] Judge Patrick McAllister in Steuben County ordered state lawmakers to draw new lines within the next 12 days. If they are unable to submit new maps by April 11, ‘the court will retain a neutral expert at State expense to prepare said maps.’” The Hill, March 31st. Our Constitution, as applied by the US Supreme Court, continues to offer less and less protection for one of democracy’s most fundamental rights: voting.
I’m Peter Dekom, and while we praise Ukraine, sending aid by the billions, in its defense of democracy, we seem to be willing to let our own democratic rights fade slowly into the sunset.
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