You cannot have a conversation about voter turnout without addressing the grievances of this nation’s electoral system with the same ardor. Every rallying cry for people to “VOTE!” must be followed by a corresponding directive for election officials to “COUNT EVERY VOTE!”. Broad participation and safeguarding the integrity of every ballot should be the epicenter of the democratic process. But, unsurprisingly, it is not.

Initiatives to undermine Black people’s citizenship within the guise of convoluted, interpretive legislation and exclusive political access is as American as gratuitous violence is, in the name of “national security”. We were never intended to enjoy our natural-born rights to their full extent following the abolishment of slavery. It is no wonder why we are still encountering the same obstacles as our forefathers. “Exact-match” laws have preempted literacy tests. Costs associated with commuting to inconvenient polling locations or obtaining documents to appease voter identification laws are comparable to poll taxes. Stationing police officers at polling places to exploit the contentious relationship between minority populations and law enforcement have perpetually discouraged marginalized communities from casting their votes. Yet, the most egregious assault of all remains the stolen lives of black people that were merely exercising their right to vote.

Voter disfranchisement is omnipresent as ever. The greatest affront to the black community is the pervasive criticism we face regarding our “ineptitude” for advancement; although any stagnation we’ve experienced is the result of the deliberate exclusion and disdain for the deregulated liberty of blacks that is woven into the fabric of the American flag. In “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy”, Carol Anderson suggests that the implications of successful statewide voter disenfranchisement is “unitary party control of the government apparatus—both houses of legislature and the governor’s office”. This is also true as it pertains to our federal government. Diluting the black vote is harmful because it further depreciates the will of the black community, discounting our needs for effectual representation. We have been able to see how important strong, competent leadership that understands the plight of black community is in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Over the years, there have been several consequential pieces of legislation that have slightly altered the landscape of our democracy. There is danger in forging the convenience of ignoring the needs of the black community by inflating the amount of seats won by Republican representatives whose agenda does not align with the communities they’ve managed to silence. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 became law at a climactic period during the Civil Rights movement. The Act declared, “No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any state or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color”. What the VRA did was encourage the implementation of voting rules and regulations that seem to be race-neutral but disproportionately infringe on minority community’s right to vote and have their votes counted. Some states have been responsible with their autonomy over their elections process by passing laws that increase voter’s accessibility like automatic and same-day voter registration, while other states have been relentless in their plans to eviscerate the minority vote by requiring state-mandated identification and proof-of-citizenship.

Quite frankly, political polarization in congress diffuses incentives for accountability and malleability to all.

If I were disenfranchised, it might be because my middle name, Alexis-Ann, contains a hyphen and there tend to be non-consequential discrepancies on various documents that between my license and voter registration application. Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp used the “Exact-Match” law to purge 53,000 voters ahead of the 2018 Gubernatorial race against Democratic candidate and former state House of Representatives minority leader, Stacey Abrams. It is alarming that he was able to brandish his incumbent position as Secretary of State at the time of the election and it was not determined to be an undeniable conflict of interest. For context, the Secretary of State serves as a state’s top election official, and, subsequently, the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s office is responsible for moderating the state’s election activity. Or as Stacey Abrams has said, Kemp was “functioning simultaneously as the scorekeeper, referee and contestant in the gubernatorial election”. After aiding the committal of voting rights violations throughout the state, Kemp “won” the election by a very thin victory margin of fewer than 55,000 votes.

Georgia is notorious for voter discrimination which is why it was one of the states that must adhere to Section 5 of the VRA [struck down by Shelby v. Holder in 2013] that required any new voting procedures that were enacted be disclosed to the Department of Justice for federal approval along with other Deep South states, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Virginia that had voter registration and turnout rates below fifty percent. However, that degree of oversight and intervention has not successfully deterred Georgia from disenfranchising the state’s minority populations for years to come. The most recent primary election held on June 9 is evidence of this fact. Machines that had formerly received F-ratings, but were still used for years were replaced by new machines that either malfunctioned or were not delivered to polling locations in time for the election. The meager amount of persons that worked the polls due to older poll workers being unable to assist for fear of contracting COVID-19, were not trained to use the machines and weren’t able to offer adequate assistance to the hundreds of people that showed up with intentions on voting. Despite the ongoing pandemic, voters waited in lines in excess of 5 hours to cast their votes. The primary disaster caused many people to leave the lines and go home without voting at all.

Voter disenfranchisement is one of the greatest threats to our national security. We must place the burden of resolve on our government officials and be vigilant in making sure that we are eligible to cast our votes.