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If you want to vote in the United States, you need to be aware of some bureaucratic niceties. It is often criticized that the obstacles are greater for some groups than for others. A fact check.
Go to the electoral college with your identification and vote; it’s not that easy in the US because there are some hurdles before voting. Some are difficult for certain groups of voters to overcome. A fact check:
Claim: The law and the electoral system discriminate against some electoral districts in the United States.
Classification: Studies show that this tends to be correct.
Acts: The Supreme Court’s decision was extremely tight: with five to four votes, the United States Supreme Court struck down the anti-discrimination clause of the electoral law. This was a legal legacy of the American civil rights movement. Until then, states had to submit any changes to electoral law to the Department of Justice in Washington.
As soon as the clause was removed, some states reacted: for example, the Republican governor of Texas declared on trial day that a law requiring voter identification would take effect immediately. This had previously been blocked by a federal court on the grounds that it unduly harmed black and Hispanic voters.
Registration obstacles
If you want to vote, you have to register. Most states have been able to do this online for some time. However, there are differences in the requirements: in some places, voters must show state identification with a photo.
In the United States, however, not all citizens own one. The identity card system is federally regulated, there is no equivalent to the German identity card.
Studies show that fewer non-white US citizens have the required document than white citizens, so this requirement is a bigger obstacle for them. Furthermore, a 2017 study across the US found that the difference in voter turnout between white and non-white voters in states with strict laws was significantly greater than in states where it is sufficient to confirm one’s identity, for example , by means of an affidavit. In some states, a driver’s license or student ID can also serve as proof of identity.
Barriers to voting
In June, Georgia voted. It was hot and humid, and the lines in front of some polling stations were almost endless. Long wait times are nothing fundamentally new there, there were already difficulties in previous elections.
Similar problems are known in other states as well. But this time it was extreme in places. Some voters and the Georgia Democratic Party filed a lawsuit against the responsible organizers.
A report that was prepared by an independent expert on the complaint side yielded results that are in line with previous studies: members of minorities were more frequently affected by long wait times.
At the same time, they are particularly reliant on personal voting, as minority voters vote by mail less often than whites. There are similar lawsuits in other states.
Possible problems with voting by mail
US President Donald Trump repeatedly claims that postal votes supposedly lead to more fraud, which has no statistical basis. The possible problems are different: Votes are not counted because they are late or the documents were completed incorrectly.
But the percentage of absentee votes not accepted is relatively low. In the last presidential elections, it was around one percent. Compared to this, the proportion of invalid votes in personally cast votes is even lower.
Due to the corona pandemic, more votes by mail than usual are expected to be cast, also by citizens who are unfamiliar with the procedure and are more likely to make mistakes. The experts assume that, therefore, the proportion of votes not accepted will be higher than usual. Black voters vote less often by letter than white voters, so for some of them it may be the first vote by mail.
