Voter Suppression

 

Nineteenth Amendment

They thought we were a joke
They tried to dash our hopes
With every word they spoke
They tried to revoke
A woman’s right to vote
But we made it

Voter suppression (revoking the right to vote) is still with us, and that also isn’t a joke.

“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.”

This is the text of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (emphasis added).  Voter suppression laws directly affect the apportionment of seats in Congress.  The suppression of any voter reduces the population that is used in the apportionment of congressional representatives.  Before any apportionment is undertaken, the impact of voter suppression laws must be considered..  An argument will be made that over suppression laws do not DENY the right to vote, they make the right to vote more difficult.  However if any voter suppression law is intended to deny individuals their right to vote, it should be considered in any apportionment.

While the text of the Fourteenth Amendment refers to male citizens, the Nineteenth Amendment must be considered to change this to also include female citizens.

While the Supreme Court may have ruled in Shelby vs. Holder that, under the Voting Rights Act of  1965, Congressional oversight of mapping of the districts in which the congressional representatives are elected  was no longer appropriate, this does not remove Congress’s responsibilities for the apportionment itself that determines the number of those representatives. While Congress may have made the apportionment process automatic following a decennial census, this only determines the total population.  The Census does not report on the voters who have been denied the right to vote.  This still must be considered before any congressional reapportionment can be determined, or the joke is on us, the voters.