In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments derive their authority “from the consent of the governed.” Voting is not only a privilege in this country, but a fundamental right.
While the people and governments of the United States champion the democratic value of voting, voter suppression has plagued this nation since its founding.
Initially, white men with property ownership were the only group given suffrage. Only after years of civil unrest were Black Americans, women, Native Americans, non-English speakers and 18-year-olds given a voice in our elections.
Even in 2020, the obstacle of voter suppression still prevents our country from achieving genuine democracy. The Constitution’s writers left election oversight to individual states instead of the federal government. This mandate led to unfair voting processes in many parts of the country.
Cognizant of such immoralities, former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the revolutionary Voting Rights Act of 1965 to legally dispose of the barriers that disenfranchise Black Americans.
The law prohibited discriminatory voting practices, such as literacy tests, which were commonplace at the time, and allowed for investigations into polling taxes.
Moreover, the act required individual states that had voting tests and low voter turnout in the 1964 presidential election, such as South Carolina and Mississippi, to ask for federal permission before altering voting operations.
That said, in 2013, the Supreme Court eliminated vital sections of the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby County v. Holder decision. Many Republican-led Southern states saw the Court’s ruling as a pathway to revert to their old tyrannical policies.
These states slowly transfigured their voting procedures. They implemented voter ID Laws, closed polling places, descaled early voting and challenged voter eligibility. Republicans clearly made these implementations with the intent of suppressing the minority vote.
Today, Republicans continue to silence the American voter.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed counties to terminate ballot drop-off locations, which help alleviate voter concerns over postal service delays. Moreover, a federal judge recently ruled against a change in voter law that would allow Wisconsin to consider student IDs a valid form of photo identification for those with no other form of ID.
Such political leaders must be held accountable for any actions that not only hurt our country’s image abroad, but disregard our democracy at home. American citizens should expect more from their government.
Leaders and elected officials — regardless of political party affiliation — who claim to be patriotic while silencing their constituency’s democratic voice are, in reality, self-serving hypocrites.
First and foremost, these politicians’ immoral actions should be widely covered and distributed by news organizations at both the local and national level. Their undemocratic values, once spotlighted and discussed, might lead them to lose reelection in their respective states.
Additionally, the omission of key components that mandated necessary federal supervision for fair elections within the Voting Rights Act must be challenged and later overturned by the Supreme Court. The exclusion of these elements within Johnson’s 1965 act is inherently unconstitutional in nature.
With so much on the line, U.S. citizens deserve equal protections of their right to vote fairly and freely. As a peddlestone of democracy, the government must defend this right regardless of class or race.
