Epilogue: The Amendments—Where We Are Now

Read Time:5 Minute, 58 Second

by E.A. Blair

From 1804 to 1971, the passage of eleven of twenty-seven amendments to the US Constitution dealt with voting either directly or indirectly; this is more attention than the entire rest of the document devotes to any other single topic.  In all of these cases, these amendments served to either clarify the voting process (as in the 12th, 20th, 22nd and 25th Amendments) or extend voting rights to greater numbers of citizens (14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments).

Following the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment in 1971, Congress faithfully renewed, extended and clarified the provisions of the Voting Rights Act.  But with the dawning of the 21st century, all that changed.  Driven, in large part, by ALEC*, new laws and court cases have been chipping away at the trend, since 1804, of expanding the franchise and simplifying the voting process.

Three of the most significant factors in suppressing the vote are state voter ID laws and the supreme court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) and Shelby County v. Holder (2013).

Citizens United v. FEC declared that campaign contributions are the equivalent of free speech.  The decision means that, for all practical purposes, there is no limit to the amount of money an individual, corporation (either for-profit or nonprofit) or other association can spend for political purposes independently of any candidates’ campaign.  It opened the floodgates for SuperPACs,  political action committees which can accept donations and make independent expenditures with little or no regulation.  The decision was based on the notion that such spending and contributions “…do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption“**

Shelby County v. Holder essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by declaring unconstitutional the vital provision of preclearance, which is the principle that states or other voting jurisdictions with a history of voter suppression or discrimination may not make changes to their voting policies or laws without the approval of the Department of Justice.  This makes possible the more recent proliferation of voter ID laws.

The first voter ID laws were enacted in South Carolina in 1950, in Hawaii in 1970, Texas in 1971, Florida in 1977 and Alaska in 1980.  Currently, there are five levels of ID laws: no ID, strict and non-strict non-photo and strict and non-strict photo.  The strict version of the laws requires voters without an acceptable ID to use provisional ballots.  In states with non-strict laws, alternatives to ID exist, such as having another voter or a poll worker vouch for the person without ID.  Currently, 18 states have no ID requirement, 15 have varying photo ID requirements and the rest have non-photo requirements.

The ID laws have probably had the most noticeable effect on voting in states where they are in use.  The most common form of identification is a drivers’ license or a state ID, and these cards may be difficult to get.  Most states require a birth certificate or other documentation, which usually requires a fee. These documents are only available in a limited number of locations, like courthouses or city halls, which are only open at times when people have to take time off work to appear.  With the documentation in hand, the next destination is a state office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, where long waiting times often means more time off work.  Some states, like Texas*** and Mississippi, have taken to closing DMV offices, burdening people wanting cards with additional travel.

Many other kinds of real or attempted voter suppression exist.  One organization, truethevote.org, places “observers” at polling places to ensure that “voter fraud” does not happen****.  These “observers” are instructed to challenge any voters they think are suspicious, and this often becomes a thinly veiled form of voter intimidation.  Other forms of intimidation include posting billboards with warnings of severe penalties for voter fraud*****, usually in minority neighborhoods.  Another means uses forged literature or phone calls which misdirect voters to the wrong polling place or to vote on a wrong day (usually after the actual election date).

Former White House advisor Steve Bannon and Tea Party Nation president Judson Phillips have both advocated a return to restricting the vote to property owners.  Repeal of the 17th Amendment has also been advocated, by the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).

Returning to the topic of voter IDs, at a Tampa, Florida rally, Trump tried to justify voter ID laws by making the following claim:

“You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture.”

This sentiment has many echoes: “You need an ID to open a bank account; to buy beer or liquor; to get on a plane; to write or cash a check; to use a credit card…” ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

Well, if there is any point to this series of articles, it’s that eleven constitutional amendments, more than address any other single issue, affirm and expand the right to vote.  And to that, I say, “A bank account is not a right affirmed by eleven constitutional amendments; voting is. Buying alcohol is not a right affirmed by eleven constitutional amendments; voting is. Air travel is not a right affirmed by eleven constitutional amendments; voting is. Using checks and credit cards is not a right affirmed by eleven constitutional amendments; voting is. And as far as the Second Amendment goes, voting has gun ownership outnumbered eleven amendments to one (and voting is way less lethal).

Oh, and Mr. Trump, nobody in the US needs an ID to buy groceries.  You must be thinking of North Korea******.

*The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a cabal of right-wing politicians and corporate oligarchs whose purpose is to subvert the legislative process by turning politicians, who are mostly Republicans, into elected lobbyists by supplying state legislatures with boilerplate bills that have, as their sole purpose, to benefit corporations and screw the electorate.  Approximately 200 anti-democracy ALEC bills are passed each year, ranging in topic from lax gun laws to voter ID, anti-environment, anti-net neutrality, promoting private prisons and restricting health care.  Founded in 1976, ALEC operated mostly under the table until their activities were exposed in 2011.

**Yeah, right.

***Texas has recently announced plans to close 87 DMV offices, leaving 78 of its 254 counties with no offices at all.

****Interestingly, in 2012 truethevote.org was itself accused of filing fraudulent applications for observers in Franklin County, Ohio.

*****For example, the levels of voter fraud of the kind that voter ID is supposed to prevent are almost nonexistent.  A study of in-person fraud in three states for the November 2012 election had the following results:  Pennsylvania: .000018%, South Carolina: .000000%, Texas: .000038%, or four votes out of 15,477,461.

******Demick, Barbara: Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea. New York: Spiegel & Grau 2009.

About Post Author

E.A. Blair

E.A. Blair is the 'nom de commenter' of someone who has been a teacher, game designer, programmer, logistic support officer and technical writer at various times in his life. Most of the hits in a search on his real name predate the internet; it appears exactly four times in Wikipedia and six times on IMDb.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
E.A. Blair
5 years ago

Sub to comments.

Previous post More Bad News For the Awful Alex Jones and Good News For A Civil America
Next post Donald Trump and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Week
1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x