New Voting Restrictions Helped Decrease Voter Turnout, Ensure Trump Victory

States that passed restrictive voting measures saw lower voter turnout and were won by Donald Trump.

Voting sign and voting line
WikiCommons

Voting line in Brooklyn 2008.

Voting sign and voting line

Early voting records may have been broken for this year’s election, but it wasn’t all good news for the voting process, as new voting restrictions led to voter suppression, reported the New York Daily News. States with lower turnout, including Ohio and Wisconsin, went to Donald Trump.

Wisconsin, which now requires photo ID to vote, went from having three million votes cast in 2012 t2.8 million this year. Voting restrictions are said to affect people of color most, as in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County where 50,000 fewer people voted in this presidential election than in the previous one. In Ohio, voters without an ID can still vote using a provisional ballot, but data from other elections say only 10 to 15 percent of people who cast provisional votes get their eligibility checked in time for their vote to count. Also in Ohio, the Supreme Court struck down measures to save “Golden Week,” which allowed voters a week to register for early voting and vote. Early voting began Oct. 12 instead of Oct. 5 in Ohio, reported Cleveland.com.

Similarly, Florida cut short its early voting and the state went to Trump by 120,000 votes. North Carolina, awarded to Trump by 170,000 votes, limited its early voting, leading the GOP to say it was “encouraged” that black early voting was down 8.5 percent.

Voter suppression was also seen by one Georgia mayor who posted voting misinformation saying Democrats voted Nov. 9, and white nationalists saying they planned to go to Philadelphia “ghettos” to give out weed and 40s to distract black voters. ​

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