Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections by Stacey Abrams

While Black voters are of course at the center because of the historical animus that seems to exist towards our participation in elections, this is also about attacking other communities of color. They are attacking Asian American voters. They are attacking the energy and enthusiasm of Native American voters. Black voters are of course at the center of the target, but what is happening in Arizona, what is happening in Florida is also attacking Latino voters. Well, I would say it’s inexorably linked to race, but I want to be really clear. In your view, how linked is this to race? Would we be seeing these kinds of restrictions if there wasn’t that kind of explosion of turnout among Black voters that we saw in the election? And they are responding to it by actually doing what the insurrectionists sought, doing what the liars asked for. They are responding to the big lie, to the disproven, discredited and, sadly, the blood-spilled lie of voter fraud. The truth of the matter is we had the most secure election that we’ve had.Īnd therefore, their integrity is really insincerity. The truth of the matter is there is no voter fraud. It is designed based on anything but a question of integrity. But it is a laughable word or phrase to use. Their new term of art is election integrity. They use the veil, they used the farce of voter fraud to justify their actions. There is no attempt to pretend that the intention is not to restrict votes. What is so notable about this moment, and so disconcerting, is that they are not hiding. Unless this is what you do and unless this is what you pay attention to, folks like me were watching, but it was fairly invisible to the untrained eye that voter suppression was sweeping across the country, especially beyond the boundaries of the south. It’s that terrible analogy of the frog in the water as the water starts to boil. It was absolutely voter suppression, but it was this slow boil. What’s happened over the last 15 years has been a steady build where we’ve seen bills passing in multiple state legislatures over time. The coordinated onslaught of voter suppression bills is not the norm. How is what we’re seeing now similar to and different from what we’ve seen in the past? The Guardian spoke to Abrams, who is widely expected to run again for governor next year, about this uniquely dangerous moment in American democracy. Now many of the issues Abrams has been raising for years have exploded and are at the center of American politics. And when she ran for governor in 2018, Abrams made voter suppression a centerpiece of her campaign, underscoring the way that America fails to live up to the promise of its democracy by denying the right to vote to so many eligible citizens.

Voter Suppression in U.S. Elections by Stacey Abrams