Hundreds of polling places across the South have been closed since the 2013 decision by the Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act, according to a new study by the Leadership Conference Education Fund.
According to the report, counties previously overseen under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act have closed more than 800 polling places since Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 Supreme Court decision that rendered the provision inoperable.
“Polling place closures are a particularly common and pernicious tactic for disenfranchising voters of color,” the Leadership Conference Education Fund wrote in its report. “Once an election is conducted, there is no judicial remedy for the loss of votes that were never cast because a voter’s usual polling place has disappeared.”
Makes sense being as we’re now a post-racial post-democracy.
And I would almost guarantee that most of those polling places are in what’s called “the Black Belt” along those southern states. This decision needs to be revisited sooner, rather than later in another related court challenge.
Its despicable that Roberts has the nerve to believe racism no longer exists when he set out to make that decision as did the other conservative judges on the court. These fuckers should try living in the real world before being appointed to the Supreme Court. We need justices that haven’t lived in ivory towers and been exclusively studying on ivy league campuses their entire young adulthood before being elevated to some court. Real world experience counts for so much more, especially where empathy of others is required
Does John Roberts realize he’ll be laughed regularly for hundreds of years?
I think that this will be Exhibit A in a major lawsuit filed after the election, showing how these closures disproportionately affect Latinos and African-Americans. Being judicious about where to bring that suit will be important – ideally, ironically, either in North Carolina or South Carolina so that the ultimate decision is with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals which issued the great decision on the North Carolina voter suppression law. Sadly, that doesn’t help this election, but may ensure the next one is more fair.
John Roberts is such a non-entity as a Chief Justice that he won’t even be remembered 20 years from now let alone laughed at for hundreds.