The United States started restricting access to voting based on economic status, gender, race and age at inception. Here are some examples of how voting laws stand up racism and discrimination today:

Voter ID laws discriminate:

• Voter ID laws “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
• If you are Black, there’s a 1 in 4 chance you don’t have a current government issued photo ID (in comparison, 11% of all eligible voters don’t have voter ID)
• Lower voter turnout happens in largely Black communities and counties when strict voter ID laws are in place
• Strict voter ID laws for mail-in voting have led to increases in ballots being rejected, notably in Latino populations and other communities of color

Access to voting is not created equal:

• Communities of color experience more polling place closures than other communities
• Black voters wait in line to vote 45% longer and Latino voters wait 46% longer than white voters
• Laws that remove weekend early voting options directly impact Black voters – making it more difficult for their voices to be heard

One person, one vote … well, that depends on where you live:

• Every 10 years, states draw new boundaries for electoral districts based on the population data from the Census.
• Many states use that opportunity to exclude voters and limit their electoral power through gerrymandering or vote dilution
• The impact of redistricting is most often felt by Black voters

In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). This opened the door for the states to pass laws that directly or indirectly make it hard for people to vote based on their race. Rollbacks of early and mail-in voting, closure of community polling sites and large-scale voter roll purges became commonplace in many communities across the United States. Data shows (and multiple court rulings agree) that all of these measures have disproportionately impacted voters of color.

When there is bias in election law that creates unequal access to the ballot, we see the impact through systemic racism and discrimination across the country. Check out our pages on Criminal Justice, Jobs & The Economy and LGBTQ+ rights for examples.

To learn more, check out some great resources to learn more about racism, discrimination and voting rights:

• Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• Legal Defense Fund