Toronto election: Voting hours extended at handful of polling stations This article was published more than1 year ago. But seven years ago, a supreme court ruling gutted this law and allowed these jurisdictions to operate without oversight, and now the previously mandatory racial-impact analysis is no longer performed. Even in those states that had elections by mail, voters had an option to drop off their ballots in-person by a certain time.Many states permitted voters who were in line by closing time to cast a ballot, but that provision also varied by jurisdiction. Closing Time? The Extension of Polling Station Hours All rights reserved. Your name will not be on the roster at any other location. Go to your assigned location. Leafly is the world's largest cannabis information resource, empowering people in legal cannabis markets to learn about the . Organizers and activists in South Carolina say otherwise. Two nearby polling locations were closed, so this was where 16,000 Atlantans were slated to cast their ballots. 8:35 p.m. . Revolution, Boggs asserted, must be rooted in a two-sided transformation of ourselves and our institutions. In a statement, Brazoria county clerk Joyce Hudman said the closures were inadvertent, and that this would not happen again in 2020. Voters are deciding whether to keep current Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, or hand power over to a different candidate. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Latest Karen Video Shows What All Karens Think While Harassing Black People, Charges Dropped Against Chicago Mother, 14-Year-Old Son In Fast-Food Shooting Caught On Video, Jacky Oh, Mother Of DC Young Fly's Children, Dies Following Plastic Surgery: Report, For The Ancestors: Video Shows Black American Women Twerking At Ghanas Historic Slave Trading Post, Viral Video Shows Racist Karen Use N-Word And Then Get Beat Until She Apologized, 'My First Karen': Black Man's Video Shows White Woman Walking Through His Home Uninvited. We never brought any lawsuits or took legal action against any jurisdiction regarding ADA issues and polling places.. When you support The American Prospect, youre supporting fellow readers who arent able to give, and countering the class system for information. Local jurisdictions in various states have gotten away with blaming their polling place closures on the access needs of voters with disabilities. Political science studies support this finding, showing that polling place closures affect voters in majority-minority neighborhoods far more than they affect voters in largely White neighborhoods. Long commutes to a centralized polling place would almost certainly make voting harder for citizens with little access to transportation, including those with low incomes or disabilities needing special travel accommodations. See Also: Kristen Clarke Warns Georgia To Stop Suppressing The Black Vote, Or Else. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. While voter ID laws and voter-roll purges made national headlines, civil rights groups say little attention has been paid to the closing of polling locations in many of the same states. In our view, access to polling places is a key element of citizens' right to vote. Overall, this is a very conservative part of the country, but with a large student population and growing number of blacks and Latinx voters, the Republican Party does not want high turnout in McLennan County. When access to the ballot is restricted, a wealthier, whiter and more mobile electorate is reflected at the polls, and certain politicians benefit more than others. By Patrick Hollis. The sudden changes can be undertaken because changes to the election system no longer have to be pre-approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. Consolidated polling stations can cause long lines and multiply the effect of any election-related hiccups, such as technology problems or short staffing. The Guardian has investigated poll closures in Texas, and theyve found a clear pattern: Some counties closed enough polling locations to violate Texas state law. An elections board in a rural county in northeastern Georgia is looking to close six of its seven polling stations for next year's elections, a move that was made possible by a controversial state law passed earlier this year. By 2018 that figure had dropped to one polling place per 7,700 residents. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights reports that in the 13 states that were previously covered by the VRAs pre-clearance provision, 1,688 polling locations were closed between 2012 and 2018. Southern U.S. states have closed 1,200 polling places in recent years We did that for January 7th, for January 21st, we did it for tomorrows election on the 29th and for a sheriffs election on March 10, County Executive Conway Belangia told theProspect. When you add this to all the other advantages of incumbency, its no wonder that most Republicans are more worried about a primary from their right than a general election challenge from their left. Federal judges have since ruled no less than 10 times that major changes in Texas, North Carolina and other states intentionally discriminated against Black and Brown voters, according to the report. Washington County voting centers are open during regular business hours for 18 days through Election Day. Follow him on Twitter: @ludwig_mike. Bill to allow fewer polling places in primaries back after 4 years Consider Texas, where 750 polling places have been shuttered since Shelby more than any other state in the study, according to the report. A Guardian analysis based on that report confirms what many activists have suspected: the places where the black and Latinx population is growing by the largest numbers have experienced the vast majority of the states poll site closures. But, without those protections, she described a mad scramble to protect voting access as states are able to go ahead with changes without consulting the Department of Justice: Its like a whack-a-mole situation.". Consolidating polling stations is a regular occurrence in South Carolina, and Greenville has already planned to do it for the first four elections of this year. Georgia's plan to close polling stations in a predominantly Black county have begun to unravel. There are probably many more cases that are being pursued, Hill said. According to the American Community Survey, only about 33 percent of households in Lincoln County own a vehicle. Polling stations are set to open throughout the day of the Bristol Mayor Referendum in 2022. The day serves as a reminder that while chattel slavery was abolished, a new form continues in the U.S. prison system. They also impact people who are less likely to own cars, such as voters of color, college students, the elderly, and lower-income voters. She tried to get gas. This means fewer people in McLennan County will decide to go the polls and that more of them will grow impatient with the wait and leave without casting a ballot. Augusta Chronicle 0:00 0:39 Lincoln County is trying to close all but one polling place for next year's elections, a move opposed by voting and civil rights groups. Ballots are seen at a polling station during the first round of Guatemala's presidential election in Guatemala City, . Civil rights groups intervened, accusing officials of suppressing the Black vote in Kemps favor, and the plan was abandoned amid national controversy. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Civil rights groups are currently pushing legislation in Congress that would restore the preclearance section of the Voting Rights Act at the federal level, but Young says the conversation must go deeper than that. This admission proves that their alleged concern about [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance is a sham, said Sean Young, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, adding This is not about ADA compliance, because if it were, they would have produced a study or analysis of what they believe are ADA violations and what can be done about them.. Bishop, of the National Disability Rights Network, said that in many cases its much easier to resolve ADA-related issues than to find a new location. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. The 334 poll closures between 2012 and 2018 that took place outside the vote center program would by themselves still rank Texas among the biggest poll closers in the country, ahead of Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Georgia's Excuse For Closing Polling Stations In A Predominantly Black Cast your vote at your assigned polling place or polling station. A voter walks to cast a ballot at a drop box at an early voting polling location for the 2020 Presidential election in Miami, Florida, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 19, 2020. If such legislation were introduced in Congress, lawmakers in both parties and the president would come under significant public pressure to pass it. The solution to inaccessible polling places is not to close them; its to make them accessible, said Michelle Bishop, the Voter Access & Engagement Manager at the National Disability Rights Network. Dont miss any of TMCs smart analysis! You might ask how is that in the year 2020? Without the Voting Rights Act preclearance protection, attorneys must file challenges as they come up, and its impossible to track them all. Most of the closures occurred after the 2014 midterm elections. Kristen Clarke Warns Georgia To Stop Suppressing The Black Vote, Or Else. A Guardian analysis based on that report confirms what many activists have suspected: the places where the black and Latinx population is growing by the largest numbers have experienced the vast majority of the states poll site closures. In 2018 in Georgia, county administrators proposed closing seven of Randolph Countys nine polling places immediately before the midterm elections, ostensibly on the basis of ADA violations. Free online tools But in a highly polarized electorate where a few thousand votes in a given state can swing an election, the loss of polling stations in Ohio, Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Texas could have an impact on voter turnout. Heres what that means. Brittany Gibson is a former Prospect writing fellow who is now at Politico. Political science research suggests that this trend could make it harder for communities of color to vote. Texas is a nonvoting state.. Poll closing times courtesy of The Green Papers and Daily Kos. Thanks to this partisan reality, Republican-fueled voter suppression continues nationwide. Polling Place Locator - Vote.org Presidential Elections (Special Polling Arrangements for Nursing Homes Legal Statement. Closing and consolidating polling sites are among the voter-suppression strategies that have gone unregulated since the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder. As long as you are registered you can go and cast your vote at any point within the given timeframe. 2022 midterm elections. - 270toWin When polling places close or change location, it can be disruptive to anyone on a schedule particularly working people who may be juggling childcare and long hours on the job on Election Day. The fallout of the Shelby decision was immediate. He ran on a progressive platform, stating that the US is driven by "gross differences in opportunity and outcome", The former California attorney general was introduced to the national stage during Jeff Sessions testimony. European election observers in Sierra Leone said there were "statistical inconsistencies" in the presidential results published by the electoral commission, which declared President Julius . The DOJs focus on polling place investigations is even more notable because other Justice Department civil rights enforcement activity is at a two-decade low.
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