For voters in 13 states, voter suppression looks like this: no early voting AND no no-excuse absentee voting. This “rigs” (privileges) the election towards those who hold white collar jobs where it’s easy to come in late or leave early on Tuesday. It disenfranchises voters working hourly wage jobs who have little or zero power over setting their schedules.
And which states are these? From the National Conference of State Legislatures (red states were slave states in 1858) and their electoral college votes (total: 138):
- Alabama (9)
- Connecticut (7)
- Delaware (3)
- Kentucky (8)
- Michigan (16)
- Mississippi (6)
- Missouri (10)
- New Hampshire (4)
- New York (29)
- Pennsylvania (20)
- Rhode Island (4)
- South Carolina (9)
- Virginia (13)
In addition, there are new (since the last presidential election) voting restrictions in at least 16 states, ranging from “strict photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions.”
Requiring every voter to show up at the polls on election day does not scale in metropolitan areas or any where polling stations have been cut.
These states overlap with the above list (red states were slave states or slave territories in 1858).
- Alabama (9)
- Arizona (11)
- Indiana (11)
- Kansas (6)
- Louisiana (8)
- Mississippi (6)
- Nebraska (5)
- New Hampshire (4)
- North Carolina (15)
- Ohio (18)
- Rhode Island (4)
- South Carolina (9)
- Tennessee (11)
- Texas (38)
- Virginia (13)
- Wisconsin (10)
North Carolina was particularly brazen in its justification for rolling back early voting.
North Carolina GOP eliminated Sunday voting because "counties with Sunday voting were disproportionately black and Democratic" pic.twitter.com/G55KWY9EKD
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) November 6, 2016
Total electoral college votes affected by voter suppression: 271
Needed to win: 270
Continued at WiredPen
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com