HOW THE GUTTING OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT LED TO HUNDREDS OF CLOSED POLLS
AN EXCLUSIVE VICE NEWS INVESTIGATION INTO A CONTROVERSIAL SUPREME COURT DECISION AND ITS IMPACT ON MINORITY VOTERS
By Rob Arthur and Allison McCann Oct. 16, 2018
In
2013, the Supreme Court gutted the core of one of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement: the Voting Rights Act. The
1965 bill, propelled by the historic march of protestors from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama, officially
put an end to the literacy tests, poll taxes, and voting restrictions that had disenfranchised millions of minority voters for decades. And it went further than that: it also required areas of the country with a history of using these discriminatory tactics to get federal approval before making any changes to voting.
But in
Shelby County v. Holder, the court allowed these areas of the country free reign over voting rules once again. For the first time since 1965, local officials could now close polls or change voting laws without the permission of the federal government. In the 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts implied that the problems of systemic racism and voter discrimination were part of a bygone era: The Acts rules,
he wrote, were based on decades-old data and eradicated practices.
At the time, critics feared that local and state governments suddenly freed to pass voting laws without oversight would start to implement sweeping discriminatory policies; others
warned of small, localized changes, such as closing polling places in neighborhoods where minorities vote.
Now, an exclusive analysis by VICE News has found that these worries were justified. In the years following the
Shelby decision, jurisdictions once subject to federal supervision shut down, on average, almost 20 percent more polling stations per capita than jurisdictions in the rest of the country. There are now 10 percent more people per polling place in the formerly-supervised areas than in the rest of the country.
....