How does income affect how long it takes to vote?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
What is the chance that someone in the lowest income percentile had to wait over an hour to vote in the 2020 presidential election?
The 2020 Survey of the Performance of American Elections (S.P.A.E.), conducted by the Election Data and Science Lab at M.I.T. found that 14 percent of Election Day voters waited more than 30 minutes to vote, an increase from 2016. According to the data from the chart above, in general, who had to wait longer to vote: poorer or wealthier people?
Why do you think that is?
What is one consequence of the voting wealth wait gap?
Based solely on the data regarding wait times from the chart, would you say that the United States is more of a democracy or a plutocracy?
What would be one way the government could decrease the wait gap between poorer and wealthier voters?
Explain whether you think the government should try to equalize wait times.
Explain how the one person, one vote, precedent established in Baker v. Carr (1962) applies to the issue of varying wait times in elections.
The Voting Rights Act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. Would you say that the voting rights act is being upheld today?
Based on the visual below, explain how race impacts voting wait time.*
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
How did wait times impact people you know? Take an unscientific survey of wait times in your community and share the results in class or online.
Learning Extension
Check out the graphs and charts on voting and wait time in the NYTimes Upshot and read this ProPublica story: Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have to Wait in Line for Hours? Their Numbers Have Soared, and Their Polling Places Have Dwindled.