Voter Suppression Policies in the 2016 Campaign Cycle

Abstract

The 2016 general election demonstrated that voter suppression is alive and well. Despite a string of court decisions in the summer striking down the most egregious obstacles, efforts to make voting more difficult expanded in a widening number of states. In addition to strict ID laws, rollback of early voting, and increased obstacles for ex-felons, states reduced polling places, closed locations where qualifying IDs could be obtained, and employed letter-perfect standards to reject thousands of voter registrations and provisional ballots—disproportionately affecting racial minorities, poor, and disabled voters. While difficult to quantify, these suppression efforts had noticeable impact in several swing states. Two elections after the Supreme Court’s Shelby County decision, voter suppression is entrenched as a partisan strategy, to the detriment of American democracy.