Vote | Illustrated by Kayli Thompson | The Wright State Guardian
Voter suppression continues to plague elections, censoring the voices of students, minorities and the impoverished.
There are 8.73 million registered voters in the state of Ohio. Greene and Montgomery county combined have 491,079 registered voters for the 2020 election. Of those ballots, over 101,000 have been returned.
Students are a large proportion of Greene and Montgomery counties due to the high concentration of universities and colleges such as Wright State University (WSU). Despite these record-breaking numbers, many students and young voters feel they cannot exercise their right to vote.
Voter ID laws
Ohio is one of the 34 states that require a form of identification and proof of address in order to cast an in-person ballot.
Maxine Tyler, a senior political science major at WSU and president of Wright State Votes organization, points out that students cannot use their university ID’s to vote. She also pointed out the strenuous process students living on campus have to go through to get proof of address documents.
Voter ID laws negatively affect minorities and those in poverty. Kirsten Spires, a senior at WSU and vice president of Rainbow Alliance, points out that voter ID laws endanger the transgender community due to gender marker laws.
Transportation voter suppression
Another issue pointed is transportation to the polls. Due to a shortage of poll workers, many polling locations have closed, causing many to travel greater distances to vote.
Travel is problematic for students without driving capabilities or those with disabilities. Wright State Votes has been advocating for an accessible polling location on campus, Tyler mentions push back from campus administration preventing such an initiative.
Mail-in voting
A popular alternative is mail-in voting. The global pandemic has increased the necessity of mail-in ballots. However, this form of voting is proving problematic for those who are currently homeless or impoverished.
Montgomery County's poverty rate was last reported at 17.4%, for Greene county the number drops to 11.3%. Mail-in ballots in Montgomery county cost 70 cents for a stamp, added to the fact voters must also have a permanent address or a PO box.
Gloria Pappaterra, a WSU political science alumni and poll worker recruiter for the nonprofit Power of the Polls says that “when you're suppressing the majority vote, [you are] suppressing the impoverished vote.”
The major concern for Ohioans and mail-in voting is delays and mess-ups in the mail system. Ohio is facing printing shortages, misprinted ballots and postal service cutbacks. Ohio has one of the safest mail-in voting systems in the country. Dual step identity confirmation and ballot tracking is in place for Ohio voters
Despite the downsides, Pappaterra, Tyler and Spires all agree that mail-in voting is the easiest, safest and least oppressed way of voting.
Voter suppression disempowers minorities and young voters leading many to simply not participate in their local, state, and national elections. Many in these communities believe that due to suppression, their vote does not matter.
Pappaterra brings some hope to these individuals by saying “if you think your vote doesn’t matter...they wouldn’t be trying so hard to stop you from doing it”.
Ohio offers mail-in voting, in-person voting, and early voting. Early voting started on Oct. 6 and goes until Nov. 2. Mail-in ballots need to be postmarked by Nov. 2.
