If you live in a majority nonwhite neighborhood in America, you are likely going to have to wait in line longer than residents of majority-white neighborhoods when you go vote. This is a trend that has been getting worse in recent elections, thanks in large part to a 2013 Roberts-led Supreme Court decision reducing voting rights protections in areas that have historically been the most aggressive in suppressing the votes of minority Americans, and you should expect it to be just as bad or worse this time around.
In majority-minority urban counties, voters lost an average of seven polling places and more than 200 of the workers who help them cast ballots between 2012 and 2016. [...]
By contrast, in more than 1,000 counties where 90% or more of the population is white, voters in 2016 lost two polling locations and two workers on average.
Common reasons for shuttering polling sites are budget cuts, which for some reason are targeting nonwhite neighborhoods more than white neighborhoods, and the closing of polling sites that are not adequately accessible to the disabled, which for some reason are also targeting non-white neighborhoods more than white neighborhoods.
USA Today notes that studies show reducing the availability of polling places results in—insert drumroll here—reduced voting. It becomes more difficult or expensive to travel to less local polling places. It takes more time, and fewer Americans can afford to do it. It is a poll tax, efficiently curbing the rights of poor voters to a greater extent than more wealthy ones. And it is being done most regularly in nonwhite neighborhoods, both rural and urban, than in white ones, because America has a long history of doing that.
Little can be done about this in the last week before an election. But be warned: it is happening. If you are well off enough to manage it, consider driving just one other person to the polls who might not otherwise be able to vote. Thwart these efforts one voter at a time, and install lawmakers who will reject this supposedly “accidental” racism, rather than seeking to profit from it.
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