With the presidential election just three weeks away and with early voting already underway or about to begin in most states, accurate and complete information is crucial to ensure our voices count; and there is also a call to leaders to avoid political violence.
During the video conference: “How to ensure our vote counts amidst electoral threats” organized by Ethnic Media Services, some experts spoke about the importance of making an informed vote, but also about the threats surrounding the November 5 election.
Celina Stewart, executive director of the League of Women Voters of the United Statessaid they have some tools to help voters, and one of them is Vote 411.
“It’s really our one-stop shop, and an electoral resource that voters use and now we have launched a new tool that contains information so that people have more knowledge and can see who is financing certain candidates and the elections.”
Therefore, he stated that the mission of the League of Women Voters is to ensure that voters have all the information they need to vote with confidence.
“Part of that confidence comes from knowing what’s on your ballot; and transparency around financing helps you learn more about the candidates and choose who best represents your interests.”
Voting restrictions
Andrew Garber, advisor to the electoral and voting rights program at the Brennan Center for Justicesaid that in this last election cycle, at least 30 states passed 78 restrictive voting laws, which are laws that make it difficult to vote in one way or another.
“To give you an idea of the comparison, from 2016 to 2020 we saw 27, and from 2013 to 2016 we saw 17 restrictive laws. That is, in the last four years, we almost doubled what we had in the previous eight years in terms of voting restrictions.”
He specified that the most common type of voting restriction that they have seen implemented is related to voting by mail.
“In 2020 there was an explosion of people voting by mail, either for the first time or at much higher rates than before, as a result of the pandemic.”
He pointed out that the difficulty of voting in many cases has fallen particularly on communities of color.
“For example, one of the Georgia legislature’s top priorities was passing a law that makes voting more difficult in many different ways, but particularly affects voting by mail when the rate of voters of color voting by mail surpassed whites after the pandemic.”
He said many of the voting restrictions are not because states put up giant signs saying you can’t vote.
“What they have done is made it a little more difficult for some people to access the polls. “Long lines are a good example of how a state can set in motion a series of events that end up making voting difficult.”
He mentioned that they shorten the deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot; and you can see a little less staff at the polling place.
“That especially affects low-income voters, those who have disabilities, the elderly, people who have responsibilities like family care, or problems getting to a polling place, they arrive, they see a long line and they think: “I can’t wait.”
Political violence
Robert A. Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, said the 2018 El Paso shootings and the 2022 Buffalo shootings that targeted three different ethnic groups were all politically motivated.
“They were all motivated by shooters trying to stop the replacement of the white population in the country by other ethnic groups.”
He said that in the last two years, you can see the long list of Republican and Democratic leaders who have received threats so serious that the attackers were prosecuted.
“The official threats that are happening are essentially a hotbed of political violence. “We are in a historically high period.”
He emphasized that public support is key to political violence.
“In other words, when there is a significant degree of public support for political violence, there are individuals who may be pushed because they believe their actions will be popular.”
He commented that aggressors take advantage of publicity because they believe they have an audience that wants these attacks.
“Our most recent University of Chicago poll on political violence was conducted on September 16 and has an impressive margin of error of less than 3%.”
He stressed that the bottom line is that they are seeing significant support for Trump-related political violence, whether in favor at 6%; and against 8%.
“This means we have 15 million people who support pro-Trump violence, but we have another 42 ambivalent people who could be pushed in that direction if their side loses. So if Trump loses, this could get worse.”
Furthermore, he mentioned because surveys indicate that a third of them own weapons and have relations with militia groups.
He stated that the vast majority of the public abhors political violence, more than 70% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats.
“The strategy that we are advocating with political leaders is for them to try to redirect that anger instead of violence towards the vote. That is the key to limiting and preventing political violence”.