Republicans have again unleashed a flood of new voting restrictions that will disproportionately target Black Americans trying to vote. There have been FOUR TIMES the number of anti-voting bills this year compared to last – and it’s still getting worse.
By February 2021, 33 states had introduced bills to restrict voting. The Brennan Center reveals their goals are to: “(1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) slash voter registration opportunities; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges.” But that’s not the entirety of it.
These laws are based on unfounded claims around voter fraud and election irregularities. They’re loaded with racist ulterior motives that show the nation is not the democracy many imagine it to be. But this also says something about law itself.
Among these racist efforts, Georgia has passed the most restrictive voting laws since Jim Crow – which was also once law. Targeting Black voters and Black people generally through laws is a fundamental characteristic of the U.S. criminal legal system, and this isn’t a separate issue from voting rights.
When we think of the whole history of the criminalization of Black people, we cannot assume that people are imprisoned, arrested, or executed because the law is just. Everything from our vote to our ability to live free from confinement is threatened by the law!