The 20th century in this country saw many people break barriers, change laws and strive for true equality and the pursuit of happiness, but we find ourselves in 2022 still struggling with one thing, voting.
On Sept. 5, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 1, which tightens state election laws and limits counties’ ability to expand voting options. Some of the details of this bill are that 24-hour polling, drive-thru voting and early voting on Sundays were cut. A decrease in polling locations for counties and having just one mail-in ballot location are also part of the new law. This is due to the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, in which then-President Donald Trump constantly talked about election fraud.
“Election integrity is now law in the state of Texas,” Abbott said after signing the bill that hinders the opportunities to vote for many people across the state.
These cuts and restrictions to voting in Texas will ultimately hurt many groups that already face barriers to voting. For example, drive-thru voting and/or 24-hour polling sites made it accessible for working-class people who cannot find time to take off from work and vote during the day. This is how voting laws and regulations are used to suppress people from participating in our democratic process.
These new restrictions to voting are similar to the tactics that lawmakers used in the past to limit the voting power for certain groups of people.
Poll taxes, which Texas did not get rid of until 1966, were used to create a barrier for the working class and poor, many of them Black and brown.
The poll tax left people back then with making difficult decisions on whether they could afford it and risk sacrificing basic needs.
The tax also discouraged many of those disenfranchised people from even wanting to participate in the voting process. Literacy tests were also used to disenfranchise voters in Texas until 1970, which affected many Spanish-speaking citizens, especially in the Southwest.
“No one who is eligible to vote will be denied the opportunity to vote,” Abbott said.
But it is not about letting people vote. It is about not giving them a chance to vote.
No one wants to wait in line for hours on Election Day to vote after a full day of work. No one working paycheck to paycheck wants to take time off to vote when they need that money to survive.
No matter what Abbott says, this is a new form of voter suppression disguised as a fight against election fraud.
What is happening in Texas is happening in at least 18 other states that have enacted voting restrictions since the 2020 elections, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
On the federal level, voting rights bills have been proposed that would establish national standards for access to voting that aim to nullify new restrictions. Among some of the standards are a minimum of 15 consecutive days of early voting, new automatic voter registration programs and making Election Day a national holiday.
As of last Wednesday, Senate Democrats made their case for the legislation to counter the voting restrictions happening across the country but failed to overcome Republican opposition to pass it with a split 50-50 vote.
It is ironic that the Republican senators, who were probably elected by having strong conservative values, such as limited government and being for the working-class citizens, voted against the legislation. This adds more restrictions to voting and, specifically, when it affects the working class, blue-collar type of individuals.
While the tactics of voter suppression have changed, the initial goal of them has not.
