The 2016 Election was the first election in over 50 years without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court gutted in 2012 allowing many Republican states around the country to pass laws targeting Democratic voters in order to suppress the vote. Urban neighborhoods and minority communities that typically vote Democratic faced a number of obstacles to casting a ballot, including strict photo ID requirements, fewer polling stations, and shortened registration periods, which resulted in record low voter turnout among Democrats nationwide.
This blatant effort of massive voter disenfranchisement conducted by the GOP infuriated everyone here at the Progressive Turnout Project, and inspired us to ask our supporters to share with us their views on voting and whether or not they believe it had an impact on the election:
To no surprise, 98% of you (our supporters) believe that every eligible American deserves the right to vote, and that it’s wrong for Republicans to restrict certain Democratic-leaning voting blocs from casting ballots.
A slightly lower percentage but still highly significant 91% of you agree that Republican voter suppression tactics helped Donald Trump win the election, but even fewer seemed aware about the extent to which these tactics were employed. Only 35% of you knew that, according to Wisconsin’s Election Commission, restrictive voter ID laws resulted in 41,000 fewer votes this year than in 2012, and that Trump won Wisconsin by less than 30,000 votes (which only half of you knew)!
Our supporters overwhelmingly agree that its important we stop Republicans from restricting voting rights nationwide, but a majority (56% of supporters) were unaware that Democratic voter turnout has consistently fallen in each of the past three Presidential elections.
From these survey results, one can conclude that Democrats are clearly unified in their disdain for Republican led voter suppression tactics, but divided in their understanding of how consequential these efforts can truly be. Therefore, it is our job as informed citizens to reach out to our fellow progressives and enlighten them on the serious violations of rights that many Democrats faced this past election so that similar efforts to limit voter turnout in the future are common knowledge and unable to succeed!
*Results compiled from over 63,000 supporter responses to our 11/17 Voting Rights Survey
