Voter Suppression and Intimidation in 2010: Where’s the Outrage?

It has been three days since the midterm elections, and in those three days there have been dozens of reports of possible voter intimidation and attempted suppression. Some Latino voters in California claim to have received Spanish language robocalls telling them to vote on Wednesday, one day after the actual election. Voters in Kansas received similar calls instructing them to bring proof of home ownership when they vote on Wednesday. In Minnesota, a Tea Party affiliated organization sent thousands of people to the polls wearing “Please ID me” buttons, despite a federal judge ruling that wearing the buttons to the polls was intimidating and illegal.

So, where’s the outrage? Where is the breathless news coverage? Where are the politicians calling for legislation to make sure this never happens again? Well, there is no outrage, and there is no breathless, ‘round-the-clock media coverage. Sure, there’s some limited reporting on voter intimidation, but it tends to be relegated to blogs or small articles in national papers that downplay the effect of voter intimidation.

Perhaps it is just taken for granted by the news media that there will be some voter intimidation in any election, so as long as the amount of voter intimidation stays below some acceptable level, it can be ignored. This is a poisonous line of thinking. If any legitimate voter is illegally denied their right to vote, the entire democratic process suffers. In the 21^st century, we had an election, and some legitimate voters were intimidated away from the polls by those who wanted to suppress the voices of certain groups. That is a newsworthy story. That is a vitally important story. Whether one person was intimidated or a million does not really make a difference. The fact still remains that there are active voter suppression campaigns going on in every state, and they need to be exposed.

As for politicians calling for tougher enforcement of anti-voter intimidation laws, you won’t hear much from them, either. What you likely will hear are politicians calling for even tougher measures to combat voter fraud. Actual, verifiable instances of voter intimidation go unnoticed, while baseless rumors of voter fraud are constantly reported. The constant reporting on voter fraud makes the public and legislatures believe that measures need to be taken to guard against it. So, the legislature enacts anti-voter fraud laws that often discourage legitimate voters from participating. Meanwhile, since the real problem of voter suppression goes ignored, nothing gets done about it. Fictional problems like voter fraud get covered in media outlets with outrage, while actual problems like voter suppression get swept under the rug.

Just three days ago, American citizens were illegally denied their right to vote by these voter suppression campaigns. Some were kept away from the polls through lies and mental intimidation, others were kept away through physical intimidation.  We can ignore it and hope it goes away, or we can start getting outraged.

Anthony Balady is a legal intern at Project Vote and second-year student at William & Mary Law School. Mr. Balady also serves as vice president of William & Mary’s Election Law Society and editor-in-chief of its election law blog, State of Elections.