Now the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law (www.lawyerscommitt.org) has produced a “Map of Shame” that highlights more than a dozen states that engage in voter suppression, either by requiring picture ID, consolidating polling places so that people have to travel further to vote, or passing other restrictions on voting.
Unsurprisingly, most of these states are in the South, but Northern states such as Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania have also made it more difficult for voters. North Carolina is so bad that Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, has been leading hundreds outside the state capitol weekly for “Moral Mondays” design to draw attention to the immorality of voter suppression.
In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has now made it easier to purchase votes on First Amendment grounds, with the amount that the wealthy can give increasing exponentially. In McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the court ruled that the limit on contributions is unconstitutional. McCutcheon is not shy about explaining why he wants to spend more money. He wants to ensure that the law embraces conservative principles.
It is interesting that the McCutcheon decision comes in time to influence this election cycle. With this decision, the Supreme Court has made it easier to purchase an election. With limits on PAC money lifted, the court has created a well-funded monster. There is more than one way to suppress the vote, and this court is determined to silence citizens any way they can. They have nullified a key section of the Voting Rights Act. They’ve made it possible to pour money into campaigns. In many ways they have attempted to shut people up, or at least skew the playing field in favor of the wealthy.
Rev. Jesse Jackson says that the hands that picked peaches can also pick presidents. We can’t pick anything if we don’t get to the polls. Voter suppression and well-funded opponents are obstacles to voting. Still, we impose some of the obstacles on ourselves.
(Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.)
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