Why does America make voting so difficult?
They called it a democracy, but the Founding Fathers of the new U.S. decided to limit the most basic democratic right of all – voting – to men. And not all men, but men who owned property. They numbered about 6% of the population.
It took 133 years of meetings, marches, planning and political action to achieve (at least on paper) universal suffrage – even for women and freed slaves. But that was followed by further actions to limit the right to vote. Chief among these was voter suppression.
In Amazon Studios’ “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” main commentator Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who ran against Brian Kemp for Governor of Georgia in 2018, maintains that voter suppression had a large impact on the close vote that gave Kemp the victory. As Secretary of State, Kemp was in charge of the vote, which was marred by broken machines, long lines and inaccurate voting rolls.
“All In” filmmakers Directors Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes tell – and show – the long and often sad story of the slow march to suffrage in a film that has never been more relevant than it is right now, as Americans prepare to vote once again. The message here: VOTE!
The Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That provision required that changes in state voting laws pass federal scrutiny. This made voter suppression easier. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the majority opinion. In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that “throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
What followed was a series of state laws requiring things like a certain kind of ID card, or payment of a poll tax, or that ex-felons pay all the fees they owe before being allowed to vote – none of which have anything to do with fitness to vote, but all of which effectively limit voting.
Each step forward in voting seems to be followed by a counterreaction to limit it.
Why does America make voting so difficult? “All In: The Fight for Democracy” will give you a few answers. All Americans should see it. And then VOTE!
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