The Criminalization of Voting and the Fraud of Voter Fraud

• In Event: Electoral Mistrust, Voter Confidence and Minority Voter Turnout

Abstract

Over the last two decades, a movement to suppress voting by marginalized constituencies in the United States largely on false claims about voter fraud has been building toward what voting rights scholars and advocates have referred to as the “criminalization of voting.” The scope and scale of this new phase in our modern day voting wars is unknown. While many see the explosion of legislation re-regulating access to the ballot as evidence of a “new Jim Crow,” the revival of the use of legal procedure to carry out political agendas has more proximate antecedents in the Reagan- and G.W. Bush-era Justice Departments’ efforts to root out alleged voter fraud.

Voting rights advocates have identified the need for more research on voter prosecutions and their chilling effects, especially qualitative data drawn from the recent experiences of people prosecuted for illegal registration and voting. Also of concern is the impact of new rules criminalizing the kinds of assistance groups mobilizing voters have long provided, especially in communities of color, and the raft of laws passed in more than two dozen states creating new felony and misdemeanor crimes for certain previously permitted administrative procedures designed to facilitate voting.

Why and to what extent are previously permitted voting behaviors and election administration procedures being criminalized? What is the impact of criminalization and stepped up enforcement on voting and voter mobilization activities?

To answer these questions, I use process tracing to analyze two developments in state election law and enforcement: patterns in 1) the fashioning of legislation in the states criminalizing the voting process; and 2) in the creation of new 'election integrity' units to pursue alleged election crimes committed by voters, election workers, or civic engagement groups. My paper further addresses gaps in our knowledge with an analysis of voter prosecutions over the last two decades, and the collection of new data gathered in interviews with voters, advocates, and lawmakers on the impact of voter suppression laws on voting rights.

Author

• Lorraine C. Minnite, Rutgers University-Camden