DOJ continues voting rights battles
National security experts worry it’s just not enough
Voting rights advocates hope the Biden administration’s lawsuit accusing Texas of trying to minimize the voting power of nonwhite residents signals a willingness to confront Republican-led plans that they say would make voting harder for Black and Latino Americans.
But some national security experts, including a former top White House adviser, said they fear the Biden administration is misjudging how widespread and insidious voter suppression and election fraud efforts are.
Olivia Troye, former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, said activists aligned with former President Donald Trump are not only trying to make it harder for nonwhite Americans to vote, they are also infiltrating traditionally nonpartisan local election offices to tip the scales in their favor in a country where hundreds of votes in a single county could alter a presidential election. “I am probably even more concerned today than I was even last fall. While we may have defeated Trump, the extremism of Trumpism hasn’t been defeated. It’s grown, it’s grown and become emboldened. All of this is concerning on so many levels,” Troye said.
Troye quit the White House in August 2020 over the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Troye, a lifelong Republican, said she’s worried the Biden administration is distracted by the pandemic, the rapid rise in inflation and other issues, and not focusing enough on the sweeping assault on voting rights and access.
“What we’re seeing here is an unprecedented attack on our democracy and efforts to destabilize our democracy,” she said. “You’re basically rigging the system so that the next time, you can override the will of the people. It’s relentless. And it’s not fading.”
At least 19 states this year enacted laws making it harder for Americans to vote, according to an analysis by the
nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. Twenty-five states expanded voting access, the Brennan Center said but noted the states that clamped down already had restrictive laws, and the ones expanding access already had relatively more expansive rules.
The Biden administration filed a lawsuit last week against Texas over the boundaries of its legislative districts. Texas is due to gain two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives because of population gain. Although the growth has come almost entirely from nonwhite residents, “Texas has designed both of those new seats to have white voting majorities,” U.S. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “These redistricting plans will diminish the opportunities for Latino and Black voters in Texas to elect their preferred representatives. And that is prohibited by federal law.”
Until 2013, nine states – mostly in the South – were required to get federal approval to change their voting rules, because they had a history of discriminating against minority voters. The Supreme
Court overturned that rule, allowing states to make changes without prior approval, known as “pre-clearance.”
Ezra D. Rosenberg of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law noted the Biden administration filed three Voting Rights Act lawsuits in its first year, against Texas, Georgia and West Monroe, Louisiana. In comparison, the Obama administration filed five in eight years. The Trump administration filed only one during its four years, against a South Dakota school district. “The level of activity has been very high, judged against historical standards,” Rosenberg said.
Other voting rights advocates worry the Justice Department is forced to play “whack-a-mole” in fighting changes in
Texas, Georgia and other states. In Georgia, the Republican-led Legislature reduced the election authority of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who refused Trump’s request to “find” enough votes for him to win the state last year.
“Now we watch as all the things we knew would happen are beginning to happen,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of the racial justice group Color of Change. “The people who are in the Justice Department are ... folks who I know take this work very seriously, who look at this issue with deep integrity and focus. The problem is, you don’t want to just deal with how to create consequences. You want to prevent this from happening in the first place.”
Robinson wants Congress to pass a national voting rights law. Although the House passed a measure, it won’t pass the Senate unless Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., abolishes the filibuster. Under Senate rules, the bill needs 60 senators to approve it, rather than the simple majority Democrats hold.
The “Freedom to Vote Act” would make Election Day a federal holiday, set out national standards for mail-in and early voting and ensure people could register to vote on Election Day.
“What we’re seeing in the South are very concerning signs. Redistricting without pre-clearance in place is rife with abuses, even at the local level,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. “It’s an all-hands-ondeck moment. We need bold, concrete actions to happen before it’s too late.”
Matt Masterson, a former election security adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, said Trump supporters have scared many elections workers into quitting, then tried to step into the power vacuum. In September, Propublica reported a wave of Trumpaligned activists signing up to run elections.
“We’re seeing it across the entire country and in virtually every state,” Masterson said. “Worst-case scenario, you’re having political actors pursuing these positions. They’re interested in pursuing their political goals.”
“What we’re seeing here is an unprecedented attack on our democracy.” Olivia Troye Former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence