The American minority’s right to participate in politics
The freedom to vote is not effectively protected enough in the US. The 14th and 15th Amendments continue to be enforced notwithstanding the Civil Rights Acts of 1960 and 1964. 2013 saw the U.S. The Supreme Court declared that a particular law’s application could no longer be guaranteed to be constitutional [3-5].
Universal and equal suffrage is actively and progressively being eroded, as is the right and opportunity to vote. Minorities, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and indigenous peoples, are most affected by this. The net result is a systematic denial of voting rights to individuals who are underprivileged, members of disadvantaged groups, and others [6-8].
Black, Hispanic, and Asian minority participation in the 2020 general election remained wildly unequal despite record turnout. Only 58.4 percent of these minorities cast ballots compared to 70.9% of white voters. In 2021, there were significantly more states passing laws that made it harder for Americans to cast ballots [9-11].
The Texas omnibus law, which disproportionately affects minorities including Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics, is the most notorious example of this. Minorities’ right to vote doesn’t seem to be interfered with in places like California that have independent redistricting committees [12, 13].
Numerous measures are put into place that make voting more difficult or affect minorities in the same way. Due to the possibility of many part-time jobs, low-income minority voters may not have much spare time to exercise their right to vote on working days. It’s possible that they have no means of getting to a polling station. Creating electoral districts that, by reducing the number of drop-boxes and restricting mail-in voting, “dilute” the concentration of minority voters [14-16].
According to 33 legislation passed by 19 states in 2021, minority voters will find it disproportionately difficult to cast ballots, according to Human Rights Watch’s Special Rapporteur on Voting Rights in the United States. The “integrity” of the electoral process has not been called into doubt by any solid evidence of severe election fraud or illegal voting. The bulk of restrictions are only put in place as a result of the “perception” that promoting and making the exercise of the right to vote too easy may encourage fraud and must, as a result, be prevented [17-19].
The Biden administration’s dedication to better defending each American’s right to vote through federal voting laws like the Freedom to Vote and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, as well as other pieces of legislation like the for the People Act that included voting rights protection, inspired the Special Rapporteur. At the time this article was being published, the US Senate had not yet adopted the combined proposal, drastically limiting the voting rights of millions of minorities and making them more exposed [20-22].
Minorities do not enjoy the same full and equal rights in terms of political participation and representation as other groups do. Millions of people who live in US territory are prohibited from voting in presidential elections. American Samoans are now referred to be “nationals” rather than as citizens [23-25].
In the US, voting rights are not sufficiently upheld. The most impacted groups are minorities, including African Americans, Hispanics, and indigenous peoples. Minority voters would have a disproportionately tough time casting ballots, according to 33 pieces of legislation that were approved by 19 states in 2021. The Special Rapporteur was motivated by the Biden administration’s commitment to stronger protection of each American’s right to vote. The right to vote in presidential elections is denied to millions of residents of US territory. Instead of being called citizens, American Samoans are now referred to as “nationals”.
REFFERANCE
[1] R. d. Wolfrum, “The Legitimacy of Constitution-making from an International Law Perspective,” Assessing Progress in the Implementation of Zimbabwe’s New Constitution.
[2] B. A. Ackerman, What Brown v. Board of Education should have said: The nation’s top legal experts rewrite America’s landmark civil rights decision. NYU Press, 2001.
[3] T. Lopez, “‘Shelby County’: One Year Later,” Brennan Center for Justice, 2014.
[4] V. Marinaccio, “Protecting Voters’ Rights: The Aftermath of Shelby v Holder,” Whittier L. Rev., vol. 35, p. 531, 2013.
[5] D. T. Muller, “Judicial Review of Congressional Power Before and After Shelby County v. Holder,” Charleston L. Rev., vol. 8, p. 287, 2013.
[6] R. M. Jackson, Destined for equality: The inevitable rise of women’s status. Harvard University Press, 1998.
[7] S. Verba and G. R. Orren, Equality in America: The view from the top. Harvard University Press, 1985.
[8] A. De la Fuente, A nation for all: Race, inequality, and politics in twentieth-century Cuba. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2001.
[9] J. G. Matsusaka, “Direct democracy works,” Journal of Economic perspectives, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 185-206, 2005.
[10] J. Manza and C. Uggen, Locked out: Felon disenfranchisement and American democracy. Oxford University Press, 2008.
[11] K. Milligan, E. Moretti, and P. Oreopoulos, “Does education improve citizenship? Evidence from the United States and the United Kingdom,” Journal of public Economics, vol. 88, no. 9-10, pp. 1667-1695, 2004.
[12] M. C. Herron and D. A. Smith, “Souls to the polls: Early voting in Florida in the shadow of House Bill 1355,” Election Law Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 331-347, 2012.
[13] G. Orfield, J. Kucsera, and G. Siegel-Hawley, “E pluribus… separation: Deepening double segregation for more students,” 2012.
[14] T. Bledsoe, S. Welch, L. Sigelman, and M. Combs, “Residential context and racial solidarity among African Americans,” American Journal of Political Science, pp. 434-458, 1995.
[15] H. Schuman, C. Steeh, and L. Bobo, Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations. Harvard University Press, 1985.
[16] M. Tonry, Malign neglect: Race, crime, and punishment in America. Oxford University Press, 1995.
[17] R. E. Benedick, “Ozone diplomacy,” in Ozone Diplomacy: Harvard University Press, 2021.
[18] B. S. Black and J. C. Coffee Jr, “Hail Britannia: institutional investor behavior under limited regulation,” Mich. L. Rev., vol. 92, p. 1997, 1993.
[19] H. Landemore, “Inclusive constitution
‐
making: The Icelandic experiment,” Journal of Political Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 166-191, 2015.
[20] J. Dolan, M. M. Deckman, and M. L. Swers, Women and politics: Paths to power and political influence. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
[21] C. S. Bullock and K. Gåddie, The triumph of voting rights in the South. University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.
[22] J. M. Balkin and S. Levinson, “Understanding the constitutional revolution,” Va. L. Rev., vol. 87, p. 1045, 2001.
[23] P. A. Jargowsky, Poverty and place: Ghettos, barrios, and the American city. Russell Sage Foundation, 1997.
[24] A. Downs, “Some realities about sprawl and urban decline,” Housing policy debate, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 955-974, 1999.
[25] T. R. Gurr, Peoples versus states: Minorities at risk in the new century. US Institute of Peace Press, 2000.