"Over the last 20 years, states have put barriers in front of the ballot box — imposing strict voter ID laws, cutting voting times, restricting registration, and purging voter rolls. These efforts, which received a boost when the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act in 2013, have kept significant numbers of eligible voters from the polls, hitting all Americans, but placing special burdens on racial minorities, poor people, and young and old voters," says NYU's Brennan Center for Justice.
How does voter suppression happen, and how could it affect the 2024 election?
The Fight Against Voter Suppression (A Brief History)
Reporter Alexis Johnson takes you on a graphical visual journey through a brief history of voting rights in America, and the impact voter disenfranchisement has had on Black voters in particular. This FRONTLINE Short Doc goes inside the fight over the right to vote, explores how the roots of voter suppression trace back to post-Civil War America, and examines what’s happening now.
Brennan Center: Voter Suppression Overview
"Vote suppression has a long and ugly history in the U.S., and over the last two decades, it has resurfaced with a vengeance."
Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook
Narrated by Jeffrey Wright, Rigged chronicles how our right to vote is being undercut by a decade of dirty tricks – including the partisan use of gerrymandering and voter purges, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. The film captures real-time voter purges in North Carolina and voter intimidation in Texas.
What is Gerrymandering?
A short and informative video from Duke University.
Brennan Center for Justice: Gerrymandering Overview
Every 10 years, states redraw their legislative and congressional district lines following the census. Because communities change, redistricting is critical to our democracy. Sometimes it's not very democratic.
Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference, 2024
The League of Women Voters explains this case, in which the Supreme Court allowed South Carolina to keep a newly-drawn legislative district map that moved tens of thousands of Black voters to a different district and created a safe seat for Republicans—after the lower court had ruled that the change constituted impermissible racial gerrymandering and purposely disenfranchised Black voters.
Also, see an overview of the case including links to oral arguments at Oyez, the multimedia Supreme Court archive.
Shelby County v. Holder, 2013
The Constitution Center explains this key Supreme Court ruling, which invalidated sections of the Voting Rights Act that had protected access to the ballot since the law's passage in 1965.
Also, see an overview of the case including links to oral arguments at Oyez, the multimedia Supreme Court archive.
Voting Rights Roundup: 2024
Overview of legal obstacles to voting rights recently enacted by state legislatures across the country, from the Brennan Center for Justice. Argues that this fall, voters in more than half of the states will face obstacles to voting that they have never before encountered in a presidential election.