Incarcerating Democracy
Descendants of the slave trade, first nations people, women, the economically disadvantaged, and those disenfranchised due to criminal convictions have never had the same access to power as men of European descent. For the greater part of U.S. history, laws have prohibited many groups from the right of a representative government. Decades of social justice advocacy, and civil rights movements have overturned laws that promoted outright exclusion. However, powerful policymakers and power brokers have continued to invoke strategic barriers to the ballot by prohibiting traditionally disenfranchised communities from influencing political outcomes.This brief is a look at the ongoing and emerging approaches for limiting representative government as well as the crime of voter suppression itself, which ultimately curtails the possibilities of democracy. In this report, we highlight the current tactics used to implement voter suppression and discuss the strategic measures to combat disenfranchisement tactics.
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