When citizens of Maricopa County, Ariz., had to wait for hours to
vote in the state’s presidential primary last week, it was a preview of a
possible “catastrophe for our democracy,” said E.J. Dionne. Maricopa
includes Phoenix, the state’s largest city, which has “a nonwhite majority
and is a Democratic island” in a Republican county. In what was
billed as a cost-cutting move, Maricopa officials reduced “the number
of polling places by 70 percent,” from 200 to 60. That left one station
per 21,000 voters, compared with one per 2,500 voters in the rest of
the state. The predictable result: When voters went to the polls, they
were met with “endless lines”—some as long as five hours. Under the
Voting Rights Act, Maricopa’s drastic cuts would have required Justice
Department approval. But the Supreme Court’s conservative majority
gutted the act in 2013, insisting voters no longer needed protection
from discrimination. Now that Republicans in 16 states have enacted
severe voting restrictions, imagine what is likely to happen when
Americans elect a president on Nov. 8. If millions of blacks, Hispanics,
and the working poor are blocked from voting, it’ll be “an electoral
cataclysm” and the result will be tainted.
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