Does Voter Suppression Lead to Violence?
Consider that on the right, you had people willing to ignore a pandemic and take up arms in protest due to fears of tyranny based on stay at home orders, you can only imagine how protesters of police killings fill when the President on down seem to cheer police brutality directed toward minorities as effective law enforcement.
Yet, what answers can we give protesters? Don't boo, vote? The right has systemically tried to restrict the right to vote. Look at Republican efforts to prevent states from allowing vote by mail in response to the pandemic.
Finally, compare how polite and restrained police are in response to reopen protesters compared to how militarized they respond to reopen protesters. With reopen protesters, you have Trump showing empathy and support for their cause. With African American protesters, you see the President encouraging police to shoot them.
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https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/voter-suppression-how-bad-pretty-bad
For the first time in decades, voters in nearly half the country will find it harder to cast a ballot in the upcoming elections. Voters in 22 states will face tougher rules than in the last midterms. In 15 states, 2014 is slated to be the first major election with new voting restrictions in place.
These changes are the product of a concerted push to restrict voting by legislative majorities that swept into office in 2010. They represent a sharp reversal for a country whose historical trajectory has been to expand voting rights and make the process more convenient and accessible.
Although some of these new laws are harsher than others, and some are still being fought in the courts, they have already dramatically altered the landscape for 2014. The outcomes of some of the tightest races this year could turn on the application of controversial new voting rules. Strict voter ID laws have gotten most of the attention, but are only part of the story. Cutbacks to early voting and voter registration opportunities, and other idiosyncratic changes to voting rules, have the potential to do just as much damage.
Why is this happening? Where are the most damaging new laws? What impact could they have in this years elections? And how effective are the efforts by voters to push back?