| THIS is one of our most requested topics. Our Hot Topics team is putting together a panel that can help us make sense of how election laws have been designed to disenfranchise certain voters. (Register early as our 2026 programs are reaching close to capacity!)
Voter suppression is any attempt to prevent or discourage specific groups of Americans from registering to vote or casting their ballots. The worst forms — poll taxes and literacy tests — no longer exist but voting advocates argue that suppression has simply evolved rather than disappeared.
Restrictive voting laws include measures such as tough photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements, limits on voting hours, early voting and mail-in ballots, aggressive voter roll purges and restrictions on voter registration drives. Some argue these laws protect election integrity, but the League believes they disproportionately burden low-income voters, racial minorities, the elderly and young voters — groups that are less likely to have required documents.
Redistricting and gerrymandering redraw electoral maps in ways that pack minority voters into a single district to limit their broader influence or spread them across districts to dilute their collective power. The result can be that millions of votes carry significantly less weight than others. These tactics raise the question of whether the rules governing who can vote — and how much that vote counts — reflect the will of the people … or those who seek political power.
*PANELISTS' details coming soon!
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