Voter suppression is any legal or non-legal means of preventing eligible voters from voting in local, state, or federal elections.
Voter suppression doesn’t have to be illegal, in-fact many of the most prevalent voter suppression types (and other voter fraud types) are contained within state or federal laws. For instance, in the 2010’s voter ID laws have become more prevalent and many consider this a modern poll tax disenfranchising eligible voters from participating in the electoral process.
Types of Voter Suppression
Types of voter suppression include legal, illegal, and ancillary types (in the case of one party having more resources than another) including:
- Impeding voter registration
- Voter ID Laws
- Purging Voter Rolls
- Inequality of Resources