On Sept. 29, the Supreme Court blocked an early voting measure in Ohio, which allowed voting to begin 35 days before Election Day.
The five conservative justices on the Supreme Court voted in favor of upholding a law passed on party lines in Ohio’s state Legislature which eliminated the so called “Golden Week” of early voting, where voters could register and vote in the same day. The law also forced election officials to close all early voting polls by 5 p.m., and reduced Sunday voting to just one week before Election Day. This decision sets a dangerous precedent and puts all efforts to expand early-voting at risk.
According to data on nonvoters collected by the Census Bureau, 18.9 percent reported to have been too busy or had a conflicting work schedule. Fourteen percent cited illness or disability as their reasons for not voting and 10 percent of nonvoters had registration issues or did not have easy access to their polling place. That means that almost 9 million people could not vote because of problems with our electoral system. In addition, election officials in Florida reported that in 2012 nearly 200,000 voters left polling places before voting because they were waiting in line for an hour or more.
Expanded early voting can help solve a lot of the problems with why people do not vote. People who normally would not be able to vote because of work or family commitments are given multiple opportunities to make time to vote.
It gives people more opportunity to find and go to their polling place. In Ohio, churches would organize events called “Souls to the Polls” where church officials would take people to vote immediately after church service. Cutting early voting and same-day voting would cripple programs like these.
The decision to reduce the availability of early voting was an entirely partisan one. According to data collected by Project Vote, young voters, black voters and Hispanic voters all took advantage of early voting at greater rates than any other demographic. These three groups consistently vote Democratic. Another group that makes use of early voting and same-day registration is low income voters. By reducing the number of days for early voting, and cutting the time polls are open to 5pm many working class voters are unable to vote. They are a demographic that cannot afford to miss work to vote, on Election Day or otherwise, and they also happen to vote Democratic more often.
Michigan is one of seven states that do not allow early-voting, although a bill has recently been introduced in the state Legislature by State Sen. Jim Ananich, a Flint Democrat. If introduced the bill would create an early voting period of 13 days prior to Election Day. However, this Supreme Court decision could put this bill, and any other legislation expanding early voting and same-day registration at risk.
By saying that the state can limit access to voting, the Supreme Court is allowing for further voting suppression. This means that voter-ID laws, which disproportionately target young and minority voters, could expand, and become embedded in the election process. These limitations placed on voting do more to hurt our democracy than protect it. Access to voting should be expanded, so that everyone is able to conveniently cast their ballot.
