Voter suppression

Voter suppression refers to the use of governmental power, political campaign strategy and resources aimed at suppressing (i.e. reducing) the total vote of opposition candidacies.

In the United States, voter supression was used extensively in some Southern states until the Voting Rights Act (1965) made most disenfranchisement and voting qualifications illegal. Traditional voter suppression tactics included the institution of poll taxes and literacy tests, aimed at suppressing the votes of African Americans and working class white voters. Measures in place in seven U.S. states ban released felons from voting; some allege that this is a tactic aimed at supressing voter turnout. Occassionally, as in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, some non-felons are banned due to record-keeping errors. Negative campaigning is also often used by a campaign to suppress voter turnout in areas that support the opposing candidate.

Voter suppression tactics are alleged to have been used in the U.S. presidential election, 2004. These accusations include:

1. Failure to deliver voter registration certificates to those applicants who register for invalid or nonexistent parties.
2. Failure to deliver absentee ballots in a timely manner.
3. Misrepresentations of the right to vote of eligible voters, such as warnings that persons who are behind in their payment of rent or have received a traffic ticket are ineligible to vote. It should be noted, however, that all of the warnings that were circulated were hoaxes, perpetuated in ways such as through chain emails.
4. Deliberate under-allocation of voting machines or booths to certain precincts.
5. The use of delaying tactics at the polls, such as challenges to disproportionate numbers of likely voters so that long lines formed in some districts, thus discouraging people from voting.

See also

• Electoral fraud
• Political corruption