By Daryl Hannah
Voting-rights advocates were already contending with a conservative-led onslaught of restrictive voting laws when the Supreme Court gutted Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act last summer. Between 2011 and 2012, 41 states had already introduced 180 bills that required stricter forms of identification, narrowed or eliminated the window for early voting, and placed new restrictions on voter-registration drives. But now, as the country readies for midterm electionsthe first major election cycle since the Supreme Court removed the federal preclearance requirement for states with a history of racially discriminatory voting lawsthe growing surge of restrictive voting laws shows little sign of slowing and nearly all of these proposed changes disproportionately impact low-income, Black and Latino voters.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which maintains a comprehensive map of restrictive and expansive voting-rights laws, 22 states have passed voting-rights laws that will make it harder for more Americans to vote. And while many of these new rules are either under judicial review or don’t go into effect until 2016, voters in 15 states will face new voting laws when they head to the polls this November.
