Pandemic-Induced Voter Suppression
Voting rights have always been inconsistently applied. Now the coronavirus pandemic is threatening those rights even more, and activists are pushing back.
Georgia’s mid-June primary was the latest example of pandemic-induced voter suppression. Long lines at polling stations stretched for blocks and blocks as socially distanced voters waited for several hours to vote in person. In Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is the state’s most populated county, some voters waited past midnight to cast their ballot.
Scenes like the one in Georgia—and Wisconsin before that—have ignited a national conversation about voting by mail. In response, President Trump has claimed that voting by mail “will lead to massive fraud” and favor the Democratic Party. Notably, Twitter even placed a fact-checkin...