The suppression of the vote in the US

The world is going through moments of uncertainty as it watches a key event for the future of international politics, the US electoral process. A veil of distrust surrounds the political contest in this country due to the sociopolitical conditions and the skeptical position of Donald Trump. The statements made by the current president regarding possible electoral fraud are interpreted, perhaps by the worst-intentioned, as a "bad omen" since mentioning the possibility of fraud, in a social context as convulsed as the current one, implies a quite convenient predisposition for the republican.

Within the framework of COVID-19, the new sanitary measures are present in all spheres of life, including public life, which is why many political figures, including Joe Biden, have invited US citizens to vote without put your health, or that of others, at risk through voting by mail. However, Donald Trump has announced that the use of this medium will allow the elections to be rigged and, therefore, fraud to be carried out.

Finding ourselves with this type of situation in contemporary democracies is an embarrassing fact, but not a truly unique event. To delve into this, it is enough to look at Latin America, a region that offers us a series of examples in which the fear, often well-founded, of electoral fraud has been latent and common. However, to bring up these kinds of scenarios in US politics to some degree seems far-fetched.

However, although the existence of illegitimate elections has not been a problem for this country, given the solidity of its institutions, the incorporation of this hypothetical scenario in the discourse does not cease to represent a danger for democracy. According to the Brennan Center for Justice report, allegations of voter fraud are often proven false. However, such denunciations are not fortuitous events, they are carried out in accordance with an agenda and certain very particular objectives. These demands are used to justify a series of electoral policies, such as the processing of a credential to be able to vote, which, in addition to being ineffective in eradicating the supposed problem, end up depriving legitimate voters of their civil rights. [1]

The fact that the president tries to discourage and delegitimize the use of ballots sent by mail, which is not a new tool ー sending ballots has been a practice used for hundreds of years in this territory ー in a context of a pandemic translates into a clear intention to reduce the figures for citizen participation. This situation is also negligent from a medical perspective since 42.4% of the US population has risk factors such as obesity. [2]

Of course, American democracy is nowhere near the most "perfect" form of government (within the limitations of reality, of what is humanly possible) since racially based voter suppression in the United States is a phenomenon that persists Electoral suppression can be understood as the institutional forms in which the full exercise of the democratic rights of the population is hindered and made difficult.

In this sense, one of the most relevant current democracies such as the United States presents serious flaws since, as Norberto Bobbio mentions, at a basic level, the democracy of the States is measured taking as a reference who has the right to vote (due to For the purposes of this text I will not elaborate further on other criteria to evaluate a democracy). [3]

This, seen in Robert Dahl's terms, means that countries that are more inclusive with their population are considered more democratic. A country that denies political rights to a specific ethnic group, as in the US, will be less democratic than one that does not exclude them at all. [4]

The suppression of the American vote is linked to a racialized system that grants privileges to a sector of society based on absurd criteria such as ethnicity or elements such as skin color. This system is a breeding ground for inequality in any field to develop. Of course, in the political arena these inequalities persist and are expressed through failures in the electoral process. This is intended to point out the suppression of the vote for racial reasons, which includes a series of institutional obstacles and inadequate planning of the elections.

Given the historical context of this State, in 1965 it was necessary to approve the Voting Rights Act (Voting Rights Act), in order to prevent local and state governments from developing electoral laws or policies that would deny the right to citizens for their skin color or ethnicity. However, in June 2013, the Supreme Court modified fundamental provisions of this law, a fact that meant a serious setback for political freedom and equality in the United States.

The discouraging of voting by local and state governments affects political minorities, people with disabilities, the elderly, and groups that have been historically violated. This is carried out through the implementation of laws that require the voter to have identification, which, in turn, implies a series of prerequisites and costs that, it is known in advance, are not within the reach of being fulfilled. by some communities and social groups. According to figures from the American Civil Liberties Union, 25% of African-American citizens do not have such an identification. [5]

In the same way, another factor that encourages abstentionism is the inadequate allocation of electoral resources, that is, the number of polling stations in areas where political minorities or the rural population predominantly inhabit are lower than in other areas and this implies that the waiting times to issue the vote will be much more extensive.

Photo: Alyssa Pointer

On Election Day 2018, “Latino voters waited nearly 46% longer than white voters and black voters waited 45% longer, on average.” [6] In recent days, up to 11 hours of waiting have been recorded. In Atlanta [video went viral](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/13/more-than-10-hour-wait-and-long-lines-as-early -voting-starts-in-georgia) where citizens celebrate that they finally managed to cast their vote.

Added to this, given that criminal profiling is heavily charged with racism, the deprivation of civil rights due to a criminal record is added to the list of factors that reduce the participation of non-white communities. This deprivation consists of denying political rights to people who have been convicted despite having already complied with the sentence handed down for what has “a disproportionate impact on black and brown [color] communities.” [7] According to figures from The sentencing project, in 2020 it was estimated that 2.2 million black people in the United States are affected by laws that seek to diminish the political power of this community.\ [8]

Within the framework of the pandemic, recent demonstrations due to the prevalence of injustice and inequality based on ethnicity, public opinion expresses frustration at the position of the President of the United States, who has refused to condemn racism and radical groups such as the Proud Boys, a group that promotes hate speech against the non-white population.

The 2020 elections truly confirm that democracy in the US has serious institutional challenges such as the proper allocation of electoral resources to avoid non-white citizens waiting up to 11 hours in line and the need to repeal laws that harm communities specific. In a time like the present, in which the world can fix its gaze on any event thanks to social networks, it is evident that the struggle of American citizens, mainly political minorities, started decades ago in search of equality is still is far from over.