We have a voting problem in America. Voting in our country has never been easy, but there’s a new challenge: Politicians are trying to stop Americans from voting because of who they are likely to vote for in an election.

Extreme voter suppression laws that disproportionately impact people based on their race or ethnicity, gender, age, or income have started popping up all over the country. If we don’t fight back, more and more Americans will become disenfranchised.

Voting rights are under attack nationwide as states pass voter suppression laws. These laws lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right. Since 2008, states across the country have passed measures to make it harder for Americans—particularly black people, the elderly, students, and people with disabilities—to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot. These measures include cuts to early voting, voter ID laws, and purges of voter rolls.

The ACLU is engaged in advocacy and litigation across the country to get rid of these harmful voter suppression measures once and for all.

Voting rights are under attack. In recent years, politicians in dozens of states have erected intentional barriers to our right to vote, including forcing discriminatory voter ID and proof-of-citizenship restrictions on eligible voters, reducing polling place hours in communities of color, cutting early voting opportunities and illegally purging voters from the rolls.

Like the poll taxes and literacy tests of the Jim Crow era, modern voter suppression efforts are relentless and effective.

Efforts to discourage and disenfranchise voters—in voter registration, ballot access, or counting of votes—have a catastrophic effect on our democracy and our communities. The facts and faces of voters from the 2018 election in Georgia convey the insidious design and pervasive impact of voter suppression.