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    • Silicone | Our Voice Matters – The Threats This Election Brings
    Washington

    Silicone | Our Voice Matters – The Threats This Election Brings

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    With the presidential election just hours away, voters and officials across the country are facing unprecedented threats to voting access. These include restrictive new voting laws, misinformation, voter list purges and even political violence.

    In an Oct. 18 media briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services, a panel of experts discussed the threats posed by this election and how those voting in this election can ensure our voice counts.

    Speakers

    • Celina StewartCEO, League of Women Voters of the United States (LWV)
    • Andrew GarberConsultant, Voting Rights and Elections Program, Brennan Center for Justice
    • Robert A. PapeProfessor of political science at the University of Chicago
    • May TiwamangkalaDemocracy Defender Director at Arizona Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander for Equity (AZ AANHPI)

    Political violence

    Dr. Robert Pape highlighted the intensity of today’s political violence, saying: “You would have to go back to the 1960s and 1970s to see anything like the hotbed of political violence that we find ourselves in now.” His research shows that since 2001 Threats tracked by the Justice Department have increased fivefold, reaching 19.5 under President Trump and rising to 21.6 under President Biden.

    According to Pape, most of this violence stems from polarized opinions about Donald Trump and is reinforced by public discourse. He pointed out that some of this is fueled by the “Great Replacement” theory – the belief that the country’s white population is being replaced by other ethnic groups.

    Recent incidents include assassination attempts against high-profile figures such as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Furthermore, politically motivated mass shootings, such as those at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, and at a supermarket in Buffalo in 2022, further underscore this threat.

    A September 2024 CPOST poll of over 2,200 Americans found that 5.8% supported the use of political violence to return Trump to the presidency, while 8% supported violence to prevent him from becoming president to become – that corresponds to 15 or 21 million Americans.

    “If Trump loses, the violence could get even worse,” Pape warned. “A third of respondents already own guns… While Election Day itself is a danger point, things can get worse afterward because of states’ counting and certification plans, particularly in swing states where a loss of just 3% of ballots will throw the outcome into chaos could fall. ”

    Despite these concerns, the poll also found strong bipartisan support for combating political violence: 84% of Democrats and 76% of Republicans – about 200 million Americans – supported a congressional coalition against such threats. The best policy “is not for our political leaders to become therapists who get people to express their anger, but rather to help people channel their anger away from violence and toward voting.”

    Voter suppression

    “Voter suppression doesn’t mean states putting up giant signs saying you can’t vote. They involve less obvious methods that make it a little too difficult for some people to get to the ballot box, such as death by 1,000 cuts and limiting the assistance election officials can provide to voters.

    Between 2020 and 2024, 78 restrictive voting laws were enacted in 30 states, nearly doubling the number passed in the previous eight years. These restrictions particularly impact mail-in voting, a method that has surged during the pandemic, particularly among communities of color.

    “In Georgia, for example, so far it has been primarily white voters who have voted by postal vote. In 2020, that flipped in favor of voters of color…In January 2021, the Georgia Legislature reconvened and passed a law making mail-in voting more difficult as one of its top priorities.”

    He noted that the justification for these restrictions — claims of widespread voter fraud — are not supported by evidence. A 2016 Brennan Center survey found that out of 23.5 million votes cast, there were only 30 cases of suspected non-citizens voting, representing just 0.0001% of ballots.

    According to Celina Stewart, “The US has some of the most secure elections in the world.” It’s not the actual infrastructure apparatus. It’s more about people’s ability to access it,”

    Voting access

    Stewart emphasized that we can protect our voting rights by first ensuring they are registered. “When cleaning voter rolls, it is important to update and verify your registration, especially if you move or change your name,” she said. Voters can also use LWV’s VOTE411 hub for resources such as local polling locations, mail-in and early voting information, and candidate and campaign finance guides.

    Stewart encouraged us to attend candidate forums: “Nothing beats hearing directly from a candidate who will answer your questions about the issues you care about.” When we vote for our leaders, we choose the people who “We will make decisions that impact how we engage in the world every day, whether in healthcare, jobs or climate change – like the impact of the recent hurricane in the US South.”

    Arizona Voting Restrictions

    Arizona, where laws impose some of the country’s strictest proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration, faces additional challenges. May Tiwamangkala pointed out that Arizona recently disenfranchised 98,000 voters because of this requirement, even though only one person was found not to be a citizen — and that person never voted.

    “The ‘non-citizens vote’ rhetoric is a scare tactic that certain elected officials and media outlets are using to divide our state… and in this election year, the rampant anti-immigrant narrative is making it easier for lawmakers to pass laws that target immigrant communities “,” Tiwamangkala said.

    AZ AANHPI is part of a lawsuit against the state over two 2022 laws, HB 2492 and HB 2242, that create further hurdles to proof of citizenship and allow voter roll purges without sufficient evidence.

    “We are an extremely polarized culture, especially since we are a border state, and people are hesitant to get political because they don’t want to destroy personal relationships. Voter apathy is growing here because people are struggling with rising cost of living and feel the government is not helping,” Tiwamangkala said.

    Images provided by Ethnic Media Services.

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    Madoc Meredith
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