The Economist - USA (2022-01-22)

24 United States The EconomistJanuary 22nd 2022

Voting rights and wrongs

One mistake after another

W

hat betterway  to  chase  one  hu­

miliating setback and waste of politi­

cal capital than with another? That seemed

to  be  President  Joe  Biden’s  strategy  after

the failure of his signature climate­change

and  social­policy  bill  last  month.  The

White  House  and  Democratic  leaders  in

Congress pivoted to campaigning for a vot­

ing­rights package which stood no chance

of  passing.  On  January  19th,  a  majority  of

the Senate blocked the bill, as expected. As

expected, too, a majority of senators failed

to agree to limit the filibuster.

As a matter of politics, it all might seem

underwhelming. But at the level of policy,

the  legislation,  which  Democrats  de­

scribed as essential to prevent democratic

catastrophe,  was  not  tailored  to  meet  the

actual threats to the country.

When  a  party  has  unified  control  of

government,  as  Democrats  do  now,  grid­

lock should be surmountable. But the fili­

buster,  which  requires  a  supermajority  of

60 votes to do most business in the Senate,

limits what can be done. An implacable Re­

publican  minority  (and  a  few  dissenting

Democrats) can block the party’s agenda.

How  the  voting­rights  package  would

escape these realities was never clear. The

ten Republican votes needed to surmount

a  filibuster  were  never  in  sight.  Neither

was  the  unanimous  Democratic  support

necessary  to  modify  the  rules  governing

the  filibuster  using  a  simple  majority.  Mr

Biden seemed to hope that stridency alone

would suffice to unblock the bill. On Janu­

ary 11th he gave a speech in Atlanta warning

darkly of a Republican plot to “turn the will

of the voters into a mere suggestion”. 

It  is  true  that  Republicans  across  the

country  are attacking  democratic  norms.

They  have  embraced  Donald  Trump’s  lie

that the last presidential election was sto­

len. State legislatures have tightened pho­

to­identification  and  postal­vote  rules,

which  Democrats  fear  will  suppress  mi­

nority voters that the party relies on. Most

worrying,  Republicans  are  mucking  with

election mechanics like vote certification.

Legions  of  enthusiasts  for  Mr  Trump’s

“Lost  Cause”  movement  are  now  running

to be chief elections officers in states. 

In  an  endorsement  video  that  was  re­

leased in the race to be elections supervisor

in Pennsylvania, the ex­president proudly

said, “We have to be a lot sharper the next

time  when  it  comes  to  counting  the  vote­

...Sometimes the vote­counter is more im­

portant than the candidate.”

Yet  the  Democrats’  proposed  solution,

which would have imposed minimum fed­

eral standards on the hotch­potch of state

voting rules, was unfocused. Two bills had

been combined to form their voting­rights

plan. One aimed to reinstate requirements

for states with a history of discriminatory

laws to seek approval from the Justice De­

partment for any changes to their voting

procedures. The other had some laudable

goals—like establishing a minimum num­

ber of early­voting days and eliminating

gerrymandering—but devoted much of its

attention to campaign­finance reform.

However, fears of significant voter sup­

pression may be overblown. Black turnout

remains quite high. When Barack Obama

was at the top of the ticket in 2012, it even

exceeded white turnout. Some cite the

growing black­white gap in 2016 and 2020

as evidence of suppression, yet there ap­

pears to have been no change in the racial

turnout gap for mid­term elections (which

you might expect would be even more pro­

nounced as these generate less enthusi­

asm than presidential contests).

When Enrico Cantoni and Vincent

Pons, two economists, examined all voter­

idlaws enacted between 2008 and 2018

and their effect on turnout, they found that

“the laws have no negative effect on regis­

tration or turnout, overall or for any group

defined by race, gender, age or party affili­

ation.” There is still an argument for feder­

al prophylaxis. Republicans are plainly try­

ing to create a voting regime that will skew

to  their  benefit—they  just  have  not  yet

found one that works all that well.

As  with  other  culture­war  issues  in

America, the parties have little capacity for

self­examination  over  voting  issues.

WASHINGTON, DC

Joe Biden’s push for a voting-rights law was futile—and the proposals misguided

Not so black and white

United States, difference in turnout between

white and black voters, percentage points

Source: Michael McDonald, United States Election Project

15

10

5

0

-5

-10

20151005200095901986

Mid-term elections Presidential elections

↑ Higher turnout

among whites

Heroic Barbie

More than half a century before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Ida B.

Wells was removed from a train for refusing to move into a segregated carriage. Wells,

a journalist born into slavery in 1862, later exposed the horrors of lynching and co-

founded the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. She was

posthumously awarded a Pulitzer prize in 2020. Now Mattel is honouring her in a Bar-

bie doll. The doll clutches Memphis Free Speech, the newspaper she co-owned. Other

women Mattel is honouring include Sally Ride, an astronaut, and Maya Angelou, the

author who this week became the first black woman to appear on the quarter coin.