In US presidential elections, the right to vote is not equal for everyone

For many minorities, the right to choose between Harris and Trump in the US presidential elections remains an obstacle course.

If it is true that 2024 will be remembered as the year that led to the polls 2 billion voters around the world, it is indisputable that the US presidential elections on Tuesday 5 November could, in themselves, mark a watershed in the recent history of international politics.In the United States, voters are called to the polls to decide who will be the current vice president Kamala Harris and the former president Donald Trump he will become the forty-seventh president.The head-to-head between the two candidates that began when Harris took over from Joe Biden seems confirmed by the latest polls.This means that every vote will count, although the fate of the nation will be played out above all in the so-called “swing states”, less predictable and, therefore, decisive: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada.But while both candidates are working to mobilize as many voters as possible, for some segments of society the right to vote is not a given, due to controversial policies that have erected barriers in recent years.

Voter suppression in the US presidential elections

When leaving the polls, many Americans usually wear the "I voted" pin to communicate their participation in the electoral process.But if this year the creatives at Public Domain thought of creating a sticker that states the exact opposite – “I Couldn't Vote“, I couldn't vote – there is a serious and concrete reason that concerns access to the right to vote in the United States.According to the Fifteenth Amendment of the American Constitution, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or former slavery.”But this fundamental principle clashes with policies and behaviors that seem to have the specific objective of hindering a part of the population.

The term "voter suppression" refers to a phenomenon that has its roots in American history since its origins, when before the Civil War the vote was reserved exclusively for white men.Even after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, which prevented states from denying this right on ethnic grounds, read Jim Crow established in the South to maintain segregation de facto they continued to exclude African Americans.Since the 2020 elections, numerous measures have been approved – 78 laws and 400 legislative proposals – which disproportionately impact the voting rights of minorities, the elderly and first-time voters.

According to a study conducted by Center for public integrity, in the last 4 years 26 states have made voting less accessible.There are many paths towards restricting access to the right to vote, ranging from cumbersome bureaucratic processes that make it complex to register in the electoral register - mandatory for voting in the United States - to restrictive rules regarding postal voting.Another fragility of the system concerns the difficulty in reach the polls in the most remote locations.In fact, since 2018, more than 100,000 polling stations have been closed, making it increasingly difficult for people trying to access polling stations:Texas, Arizona and Georgia are among the most affected states.The distortions of the American electoral system also affect new voters.In Texas, for example, you can vote with a gun license, but not with the student card.

The voting wall in the southern states

A research published on The Conversation shows that the lower accessibility to voting found since 2020 mainly concerned 43 percent of Southern states and 31 percent of Midwestern states, a large region in the central area of ​​the country which includes, among others , populous states like Illinois and politically crucial states like Michigan and Wisconsin.Regarding this large group of states, the data reveal that the most significant losses in access to the vote occurred among the population of African-American voters.American politics professors Kathryn Schumaker and Allyson Shortle, who oversaw the research, maintain that the most restrictive legislative measures in this sense were taken in Republican-led states – in 86 percent of cases – while only 5 percent of Democratic-led states he raised walls against voting.

They then identified a correlation between the most restrictive states and turnout rates in the 2022 midterm elections, already traditionally characterized by lower turnout than presidential ones.In these contexts the average voter turnout rate was 45.8 percent – with the extreme case of Mississippi, the lowest of all, at 32.5 percent – compared to 49 percent of states that had not introduced restrictions.“A statistically significant difference that is below the average turnout rate across the United States of 46.2 percent,” they write Schumaker and Shortle.

Harris, Trump and the minority vote

With regard to the country's main minorities, there is no doubt that the final stages of the electoral campaign have become increasingly harsh in tone.On Sunday 27 October this climax reached its peak during the rally organized by Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York.From the stage, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe unleashed extremely violent and openly racist rhetoric, going so far as to define Puerto Rico “an island of floating rubbish”.Hinchcliffe's words infuriated the former president's electoral committee, worried about the possible effects on the vote of Puerto Ricans and, more generally, Latinos – that is, the 36 million people who speak Spanish and live in the United States, equal to 15% of the total number of those entitled to vote - And who in 2020 had given great support to Trump.Even just losing the votes of Puerto Ricans could cost the former president dearly, since according to the Pew Research Center people coming from the island in the northeast of the Caribbean Sea counts almost 6 million people scattered throughout the 50 American states.Even more important is that the Puerto Rican electorate could prove decisive in key states like the Pennsylvania, where it is represented by nearly half a million people.

It is therefore not surprising that Kamala Harris tried to seize the opportunity by attacking Trump on the issue, stating that will fight for Puerto Rico and its families after the US presidential elections.To give an idea of ​​the strategic importance that the Puerto Rican component could have on the elections, just think that on the same day the Democrats presented a new Puerto Rico Economic Development Program, at the same time receiving the support of important personalities such as singer Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin.

As far as the vote of African American voters is concerned, few argue that Trump can prevail.The black community has more than 34 million voters, about 14 percent of eligible Americans.Nonetheless, the latest polls show that, while black voters lean towards Harris, they are less safe that his presidency is truly capable of giving a better direction to their lives, especially from an economic point of view.In this sense, the Democrats seem to be paying the price of 4 years of Biden's presidency, deemed incapable of keeping the promises made.

The unpredictability of swing states