On this edition of Your Call, we're discussing a 50-state investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, which found 26 Republican controlled states have made access to voting and political representation less equal in the past two years for people of color, younger voters, and people with disabilities.
Here are a few examples: Wyoming requires voters to present a photo ID when casting ballots in person. Previously, voters were required to present ID only when registering.
In Arizona, new laws allow for the purging of names from the state’s mail-in ballot voting list if a resident misses two consecutive election cycles and requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. Indigenous leaders in the state say the proof of citizenship requirement specifically targets elders in their communities.
Missouri Republicans passed a strict new photo ID requirement and made it a crime to help people vote through registration drives and other efforts.
How will voter suppression impact the midterms and how are activists organizing to restore and protect voting rights?
Guests:
Gina Castro, freelance journalist, Pulitzer Center fellow, and racial justice fellow for the Evanston RoundTable Media
Aaron Mendelson, reporter with the Center for Public Integrity
DeArbea Walker, freelance digital journalist
Kendra Cotton, CEO of the New Georgia Project
Web Resources:
Center for Public Integrity: Who Counts?
Center for Public Integrity: A headlong rush by states to attack voting access — or expand it
Center for Public Integrity: Alabama again at center of challenges to Voting Rights Act
Center for Public Integrity: More than 15% of Black Mississippi residents permanently barred from voting
Center for Public Integrity: Voters in jail face ‘de facto disenfranchisement’
