SAWANT: Voter suppression degrades value of American vote
Column: Sincerely Rue
The country in which we find ourselves is home to a polarized and ever-changing government.
It is a unique experience to be a part of the American constituency, which requires us to assume different roles. We play the role of a taxpayer, an advocate and consumer but, perhaps most importantly, a voter.
Even though the ability to vote is a fundamental right, it has become more of a privilege in the current political climate — something easier to take away than it is to give.
Voting in America is important, but voting in America is broken. Although it is nothing new, voter suppression became a hot topic this past year.
Ballotpedia defines voter suppression as “policies and tactics that place an undue limitation on the ability of citizens to cast countable ballots in an election.” Making voting as inaccessible and inefficient as possible is becoming all too common— especially for racial minorities, students, senior citizens and people with disabilities.
In many parts of the country, eligible voters were — and still are — faced with increasingly ridiculous barriers to voting such as strict voter identification laws, cuts to early voting, dismissal of Election-Day registration, voter purging, racial and partisan gerrymandering, harsh registration compliance deadlines and unreasonable deputy registrar requirements.
When you put the principle of voter suppression into perspective, it seems hypocritical that a country touting the importance of democracy for most of its history would undermine a basic tenet of democracy like this.
Voter suppression is the doing of an increasingly toxic government becoming more polarized by the minute, with officials playing harder for partisan politics than for constituency interest.
Attempts to restrain voters have commonly been Republican endeavors that target historically Democratic voters. Politics is not the game some politicians treat it as, and many voters have a lot to lose when they are not represented in government.
This makes the vote you are entitled to much more critical. If political actors are jumping through hoops and going out of their way to suppress voters purposely, it should be a wake-up call for all of us that voting plays more of a role in elections than we may believe it does.
If politicians know that, we need to realize it, too.
Even though the vote is vital by nature, it holds no meaning when it is censored, blocked or thrown out. In this way, voter suppression degrades the value of the vote.
This degradation is only multiplied when Americans themselves begin to lose faith in the electoral system designed to serve them. Citizens are not blind to blatant attempts to disenfranchise them. Therefore, many of them decide not to vote at all. In that case, who can blame them, really?
All too often, I have listened to my peers lament that their vote means nothing and that casting a ballot is a big waste of everyone’s time. The loss of faith in the vote results from persevering voter suppression.
What was such an impressive component of American democracy, the ability to legally sway elections, has now been reduced, for some, to a device for polarizing partisan politics.
This is a painful reality, especially for those of us who, once upon a time, could not vote at all, regardless of our gender or race. Before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, state governments did not guarantee suffrage. It is a bitter thought that we received the right to vote only for it to be hijacked by politicians chasing self-serving political agendas.
The very fact that there are people in government trying to take the vote away from some should indicate how much weight a vote truly holds.
But the effective disenfranchisement of eligible voters and continued risk of election manipulation leaves many Americans feeling like the exact opposite is true.
The Biden Administration is dragging its feet with voting reform, whether it is due to a lack of proactivity or GOP refusal to cooperate with Democrats.
Voting rights must be protected more vigorously. The Senate must realize and react to the harmful implications of Republicans blocking voting rights bills. The lack of legislative success to protect voters highlights the urgent nature of voter suppression.
Until this issue is adequately addressed with voting reform, the vote will continue to lose importance. Communities will continue to go unrepresented in elections that are supposed to be “free and fair.” Right now, they are anything but. Disenfranchisement is a threat and must be treated with urgency.
In the meantime, the integrity of our democracy is crumbling.
Rujuta Sawant is a Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in business analytics and information technology and minoring in political science. Her column, "Sincerely Rue," runs on alternate Mondays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Due to space limitations in our print newspaper, letters to the editor must not exceed 500 words. Guest columns and commentaries must be between 700 and 850 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com by 4 p.m. to be considered for the following day’s publication. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
