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The Politics of Voter Suppression - Coggle Diagram
The Politics of Voter Suppression
Voting is not a privilege, it is a right that should be assessable to all American citizens
The legitimacy of our voting system depends on participation
Many of the struggles put forth during the civil rights movement focused on the right to vote
A serious flaw in the democracy: those who are more likely to turnout to vote have their problems addressed by government, rather that those who dont, which is the population that usually needs it more
Elections should be used to encourage voter participation, not suppress it
Electorate has been leaning more and more towards the richer, whiter, and older
Many of the people who vote are grossly ill-informed
Abuse of election and voting laws are harshly detrimental to the democracy
When there are laws that purposefully make it more difficult to vote, then the tactics that campaigns use are degraded
historically campaigns have used voting laws to suppress the votes of the other side
Many voting laws may have been put in place to avoid potential fraud, but they all had political ends in mind
This was an ideal followed by both parties
The registration laws were put in place under a claim to aid in preventing fraud, but they really were not effective in doing what they were made to address
The ways in which ballots were printed pushed forms of intimidation onto voters
The printing made it obvious who people were voting for, making vote buying a simple task
Partisanship and prejudice where severely intertwined
For example the ways in which poll workers were hired greatly inhibited voting for many men who may have worked far from home, or had oddly spelled names
Literacy tests were highly prejudiced towards black people
They could affect poor white people too, but not at as high of a rate
Southern democrats held "white primaries"
Disenfranchisement was racially motivated in the South, and class motivated in other parts of the county
The American elite did not want immigrant voting in elections and deciding on the country's politics
Paying poll taxes meant an extra trip to the county assessors office for the poor black and white workers