By Ryan Marrufo
If there was one thing that I have been hearing about on Twitter about the Democratic Primaries, it is that there has been the act of voter suppression at many of the polls. I have been seeing this uproar as of late from people in college and that of minority communities. This sentiment can also be seen in the news as of late as well. With one weird act as of recent being a law that was passed by Florida where they would make it so that voters would have to pay fines and fees associated with their convictions before being able to vote (Ross). This was supposed to work alongside with another law where Florida had banned people who have been convicted of felonies from the participation of voting. With this law still in place it made it so that about ten percent of people within Florida were unable to vote (Ross). This law was left over from a time in which Jim-Crow was still active, and was removed in 2018 (Ross). The law that was mentioned before, saw resistance from groups such as the ACLU, the NAACP, the Educational Fund, and the Fair Elections Center, filing a suit against Florida for racism due to black voters being more likely to have felony convictions than that of white voters thus having to pay more (Ross). Within the hearings, after hearing the arguments from both sides, the judge went on to say that it was a “punishment for poverty.” (Ross). After looking online for an answer on the case, I came across an article that states that Florida as of right now has ruled in favor of the poll tax which will make it harder for people of lower incomes and who has a committed felony on their record to vote in the upcoming election (Higgins). There is also another issue that was fairly recent, and that was super Tuesday for both California and Texas. Both California and Texas are both described as having hour long lines at many of the polling stations across each state (Wines). There was also many complaints coming from that of voting-rights groups where they state that officials were looking to reduce the turnout for ‘political reasons’ (Wines). For example, there was a University located in Southern Texas that is a historically black school. The lines to vote on their college campus were reported to have been at least seven hours long to just cast a ballot. According to Michael Wines, a man who had written for the New York Times, it was reported that critics had complained about the delays amounting to voter suppression, at the hands of the Republican party. There is also history of the Republicans trying to minimize the Democratic vote in Texas (Wines). But what if it was not voter suppression but instead it was something else that had made the people of California and Texas wait so long to vote. For Texas, at least a huge reason for the long lines was the fact that there were so many people that had showed up to vote and were undecided. Not to mention all of the glitches that had occured with the voting process. Along with not being able to negotiate between the Democratic and Republican party, on where to have their polling locations be. So to remedy that problem the amount of voting machines was split fifty-fifty between each party, and with there being a heavier turnout of Democratic voters compared to that of the Republican ones thus leading to the lines for the Democratic primaries being hours long (Wines). For California, the big reason for the big lines and long wait times was supposedly due to the new voting system that was put into place in which by itself had created up to four hours of delays across the state (Wines). The new voting system also made it so that these polling centers had to open up later due to having to give the volunteers working the polls the proper training in order to use them. With that in mind though, I still go on Twitter to see what people are thinking about the primaries. I still see people talking about the act of voter suppression, and I mainly saw it happen with the primary voting in Michigan where candidate Bernie Sanders had lost to Joe Biden. I remember reading all of these people call out that what was happening in Michigan to be voter suppression, and even Bernie Sanders himself was implying that it was happening as well. Although I can see where they are coming from, with long lines lasting hours to vote and it seemingly being in areas with a high population of younger people and minority groups. It is a little suspicious.
Higgins, Eoin. “It’s 2020 and Florida’s Supreme Court Just Ruled in Favor of a Poll Tax.” Common Dreams, January 16, 2020. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/16/its-2020-and-floridas-supreme-court-just-ruled-favor-poll-tax.
Ross, Janell. “’Tidal Wave of Voter Suppression’ Washes over States, Lawyer Says.” NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal News Group, February 5, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/presidential-voting-season-tidal-wave-voter-suppression-washing-over-multiple-n1128041.
Wines, Michael. “Why Did It Take So Long to Vote in Texas and California?” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 5, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/us/california-texas-voting-lines.html?searchResultPosition=8.
History Lab 
I agree with you on all of it being a little suspicious. I believe that there’s a relationship between voting and voter suppression. I remember when I took a political science class in community college, that we had a lecture spanning a few classes on the voting processes. Like you mentioned, having long lines at polling places is one voting problem that could be seen as a way to suppress votes. In that class, the professor had talked about how in some places, such as the South, there could be only a couple of polling places open for a ton of people, and either there ends up being a long line, or people actually have to travel miles and miles to get to a polling place, which would be a problem for many people who may not have a car or any other reasonable means of traveling due to money, lack of public transportation, or disabilities. It’s… interesting to think about when you see some other countries where voting is mandatory or easier access.
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Hi Ryan. Great post. This whole primary season has been crazy! Just starting out with the whole messed up Iowa caucus and now I’m wondering about voting moving forward with the whole corona virus thing, I definitely think 2020 will be a year that goes down in political science textbooks. I’m wondering how much of the extended wait times are a product of strategized voter suppression and how much is just the fault of the completely mismanaged democratic party. I’m consistently amazed at how inept the democrats seem. Don’t get me wrong, I vote democratic, but it just seems like the party chairpeople are constantly bungling elections. I don’t know all the details, but I remember that there was a scandal in 2016 where they channeled funds into Hilary Clinton’s campaign and neglected Bernie Sanders, and then the Iowa caucus was a disaster and they looked completely unprepared. Compared to the Republicans, who seem to be able to put aside their internal differences and coalesce behind a single candidate, no matter how terrible they may be, the Democrats seem to be unable to unify around one candidate and it seems to be hurting the party on the whole. All of this makes me wonder if the reason for the apparent voter suppression is really a self-inflicted wound.
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Hello Ryan, this was an awesome post! I’ve seen a lot of tweets about voter suppression in the last few weeks, and this post helped to clear up exactly what they were talking about. A lot of people were angry about the long lines and seemingly unending wait times. Many twitter users were urging others to stay in line and to make sure to vote. Even Bernie Sanders himself urged his voters to stay in line to vote. The fact that voter suppression still happens today is a sad fact, and I hope that sometime in the near future it will come to an end.
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Hey Ryan, great post on voter suppression and the Democratic party being inept in a lot of issues. I don’t have a twitter account because this does seem suspicious but can a lot of false news on it’s Twitter but this seems very true. When they changed the voting this year made it seem like they should have either went closer over things or tell people weeks earlier in emails or letters to let people know. Not only that but you’re talking about Florida the state that gave us George Bush for two terms because they couldn’t or cheated in elections. In all with Florida, California, or Texas the government better figure all this out or people all together on both sides might stop voting with all this talk about voter fraud most likely coming back up in discussions coming close to election. Now with the CV19 coming up if we can’t get a hold of that first will voting is happening they might have a lot of mail soon too.
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Hey Ryan, super interesting to hear about the law in Florida being passed. To me, it basically sounds like a modern poll tax which is strange that it got through since the 24th Amendment prohibits states from requiring a poll tax or any other form of taxation to vote, how is this Florida law allowed? In reference to the long lines, at least in California, one of my political science professors who worked a poll in SF told us that California has changed a lot of policies and has made ample ability for anyone to vote, the long lines and weeks it takes to count California votes are actually a result of programs meant to make it easy for everyone in the state to vote, with these new policies, anyone who is of age and a California resident can vote, it doesn’t even matter if you’re not a documented citizen or not registered yet to vote, as long as you can somehow prove you live in California, you could show up to a poll the day of the primary and register right there and then to cast your vote. I don’t know enough about Texas to say if their long lines are a result of similar helpful programs or if, as you suggested, something shady actually is going on.
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Hi Ryan,
Regardless of whether you support Bernie Sanders’ policies or not, it is clear that voting is a tool by which the everyday citizen has the same power as the political establishment, hence why this terrifies them. There were so many irregularities one of them being the wait times in order to get into the voting booth, as you mentioned. Part of the problem is that many states have reduced the amount of polling places which forces longer lines. All of these tactics are being used to discourage voting which translates into low voter turnout. It is a vicious cycle, low voter turnout translates into voter apathy. People disengage and that is what establishment politicians live for. Since no one is paying attention they often pass laws that benefit the establishment more than the people. The key is to make voting simple. One solution is to make voting a weekend event. Voting on Saturday and Sunday where anyone can vote even voters who vote NPP (No Party Preference). This would create a huge boost in voter turnout because voting would be as easy as going to the nearest Starbucks and getting a latte. Additionally, aspiring politicians with a vision would be tapping into the second biggest voting block here in California: NPP voters.
Thank you for addressing this issue!
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