Internal political strife within the United States has maintained its influence over the dynamics of the interactions among Americans since the 2020 election. Many had claimed that Joe Biden, the newly appointed president, had won the election through voter fraud instead of the traditional democratic appointment former presidents had undergone. Nonetheless, Biden has claimed such allegations to be a “...big lie…” Although Biden himself did not prove through empirical evidence that the claims against him were false, the evidence presided by the opposing party, in this case, Republicans who support former president Donald J. Trump, were not sufficient in supporting such a claim. Therefore, Biden was sworn into office. Regardless, the tensions between the Republican and Democrat parties are still evident within the government.
As such, Republican Governors have maintained this distrust with the election results even after Biden’s confirmed position. However, as such efforts to decrease confidence in the election results grew increasingly futile, Republicans have passed voter suppression laws across the country mainly with the effect and goal of making it difficult for historically disadvantaged individuals, such as the elderly and African Americans, to vote.
For instance, lawmakers in Georgia, Michigan, and Florida have made it required for voters to provide their official legal identification, as recognized by the United States Government when they turn in their mail-in ballots.
While some may argue that this does not decrease voting or make it difficult to vote, others recognize that this does decrease the number of voters because they limit access to voting as some, according to The Guardian, may not have ready access to their identification documents and be discouraged by the fact that voting requires them to have official documents on had: therefore, lengthening the process of practicing one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the American Constitution.
Within Texas, legislators have attempted to advance laws that would give “poll watchers” to record people voting. This is inherently against the rights and procedure of voting that the American Government has been protecting in past years. The governments of Georgia and Arkansas have passed a law making it illegal to provide food and water to voters in line to vote.
The government of Michigan has begun to block election officials from allowing voters to fill out an absentee ballot by not posting a link on the government’s website.
From the perspective of the Republican party, all of these measures have been initiated within state legislators to decrease voter fraud while Democrats view such measures as an ‘attack’ on the voting rights of minority populations by discouraging them to vote.
Clearly, Democrats and Republicans who do not support widespread laws specifically pertaining to voting, have been pressured by the public and other state and county officials to take action against the recent laws. More specifically, President Biden himself issued an executive order to increase voting access. Moreover, Biden has also created a new job within the White House that is accountable for enforcing fair voting laws and maintaining voting access to all populations regardless of gender and race.
While such measures may prove that Biden hopes to ensure voting is available to all, the president is not able to take legal action against the laws passed by Republicans any further.
Thus, organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that aims to push for equality among all citizens within the united states, especially for the LGBTQ community, people of color, as well as the disabled population within American. With regards to voter suppression, ACLU hopes to protect American democracy by raising awareness for and advocating against “... measures… [that] include cuts to early voting, voter ID laws and purges of voter rolls.”
Even state representatives, such as Georgia State Rep. Erica Thomas, have spoken against the recent actions of Republicans claiming that the Government is in conflict over “a problem that’s not there.” Thomas continues by claiming that such laws have been passed, not only to decrease voter fraud, “...[but] to get rid of Democratic votes.” Nonetheless, Thomas and her fellow Georgian Representatives feel that actively voting marginalized individuals have actually increased as shown in the 2020 election, which they recognize as “the hard work by advocacy groups like Nse Ufot's New Georgia Project and Stacey Abram’s Fair Fight” as they document at least 500,000 new voters in Georgia. While this number may seem insignificant, elections can be won and lost in incredibly small margins, making every vote important in deciding future governmental representatives.
Accordingly, Republican lawmakers, such as the Republican senate leader of Kentucky, Mitch McConnell are attempting to stop and decrease opposition to his party’s actions. For instance, in a Rules Committee session in Washington, McConnel, along with other GOP members, pushed for, according to news, “a wave of amendments against key sections of the bill [a bill passed by Democrats which aimed to increase voter access by increasing automatic registration and 24-hour ballot boxes], which Democrats turned aside in an hours long-voting session.”
This proves that these tensions will continue to impact voting in the future as bills and various legislations are passed regularly as parties hope to ‘cancel out’ the actions of the other.
Nonetheless, the general American public should be aware of such a conflict to understand how to navigate the potential new process of voting, which in the process allows them to protect their own voting rights.
Writer: Rakshaa Ramalingam Subbalakshmi
Sources:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-may-2021
https://tcf.org/content/commentary/assault-americans-voting-rights-quick-take/
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/modern-attacks-voting-rights-act-resource-page
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/voting-restrictions-republicans-states/
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/for-the-people-act-vote-06-22-2021/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/22/joe-biden-live-updates/
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-business-voting-rights-bills-voter-registration-3dbcf3e5d04e6c7aa7c9ff629e9d1cb3
https://msmagazine.com/2021/04/15/state-attacks-voting-rights-georgia-michigan-arizona-for-the-people-act/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/28/republicans-voter-suppression-biden-100-days
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/us/politics/voting-rights-supreme-court-georgia-arizona.html
https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/fighting-voter-suppression
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56287375
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