How the gutting of the Voting Rights Act led to hundreds of closed polls

[mahatmakanejeeves]

VeryHiddenGeniusHat Retweeted:

John Roberts said voting discrimination was no longer "flagrant, widespread or pervasive" when he gutted Voting Rights Act

Now @vicenews finds areas once covered by VRA shut down 20% more polling places vs rest of the country since Shelby County decision

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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 Act’s 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.
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[czarjak]

1. Rigged, period.