Thanks to Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act, a slew of restrictive voting laws will be in force this fall for the first time in a presidential election. But now the Shelby ruling is putting voting rights at risk in a whole new way: Citing the ruling, the Justice Department recently announced that it would significantly reduce the number of federal observers that it deploys at polling places to guard against voter suppression and intimidation. The impact of the cutbacks could be particularly severe this year, when several states will be asking poll workers to implement new voter ID laws, upping the chances that on-the-ground errors or other problems keep voters from the polls. Meanwhile, some voting rights advocates are critical of the Justice Department’s decision to reduce the number of monitors, saying it relies on an overly conservative reading of the Shelby decision.
The ruling’s main impact was to invalidate the coverage formula that determined which areas of the country had to submit any voting changes to the federal government for approval before they went into effect. It’s allowed southern states from Texas to Virginia to impose voter ID laws and other restrictions that previously would have been blocked because they affect minorities more than whites.
But in a speech earlier this month to a Latino civil rights group, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Shelby had also “severely curtailed” the department’s ability to deploy election monitors. As a result, she said, “we will be sending out fewer people with fewer capabilities this November.”
Full Article: Cutbacks to Poll Monitor Program Raise Voter Intimidation Fears – NBC News.