‘Voter suppression has a long and troubling history in the US,’ expert says

EVANSTON, Ill. --- With the U.S. Presidential election just weeks away, efforts to purge voter rolls in key battleground states have prompted concern from the Department of Justice regarding possible violations of federal rules governing registered voter lists.

With the DOJ seeking to root out the ruler-breakers, voters are also absorbing details from the recent unsealing of the indictment against former President Donald Trump by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. The 165-page filing documents multiple incidents in which Trump continued to promote false claims that voter fraud caused him to lose the election, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

Professors of law and political science at Northwestern University are available to comment on voter suppression as a strategy to disenfranchise voters and influence election outcomes.

Tabitha Bonilla is an associate professor of political science, human development and social policy at Northwestern. Her research focuses on voting behavior, political messaging and political representation. She can be reached by contacting Stephanie Kulke at stephanie.kulke@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Bonilla
“Removing voters from voter rolls is concerning when it disproportionately targets certain types of voters. Voters of color and older voters tend to be more likely to be removed from voter rolls than other types of voters, making it more difficult for their voices to be heard. Voter fraud is incredibly uncommon, and it’s less clear to me that these moves are actually preserving the integrity of the ballot box more so than they are working to make it harder for certain people to vote.”

Alvin B. Tillery Jr. is a professor of political science and Black studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern. His research focuses on American politics, race relations and affirmative action and diversity policies. He can be reached at alvin.tillery@northwestern.edu or by contacting Stephanie Kulke at stephanie.kulke@northwestern.edu.

Quote from Professor Tillery
“Voter suppression against Black voters has a long and troubling history in the United States. What we must understand is that gaining access to the franchise rights promised to Black Americans in the 15th Amendment was one of the primary forces that gave rise to the long civil rights movement. Between the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and the SCOTUS decision that gutted it in 2013, there was a broad cultural consensus that the federal government should protect minority voters from voter suppression and that governments on all levels should be making it easier to vote. Unfortunately, as our population began to diversify and embrace more progressive stances on cultural issues, many in the Republican Party rightly began to realize that giving minority populations easy access to the ballot would make it harder for them to win elections.

“We now stand at a point in history where the Republican Party as an entity has been given the greenlight by a Supreme Court packed with radical rightwing judges to suppress the voting rights of Black Americans, Latinos, college students and anyone else that they deem a threat to their electoral interests. We should see the Republican Party’s voter suppression movement as just a larger piece of the puzzle that indicates their full embrace of an authoritarian turn.”

Michael Kang is a nationally recognized expert on election law. As the Class of 1940 Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, his expertise includes campaign finance, voting rights, redistricting, judicial elections and corporate governance. To set up an interview with Professor Kang, contact Shanice Harris at shanice.harris@northwestern.edu.