投票权和环境正义

连接点和推进解决方案

2019年11月7日发布

妇女在投票权游行中举着“停止压制选民”的牌子
Michael Fleshman/CC BY-SA 2.0 (Flickr)

在一个正常运转的517888九五至尊娱乐国家,投票是人民权力的核心. 这是我们如何在相互竞争的政策议程和优先事项之间做出选择, 我们如何管理管理我们的机构. And, crucially, it’s how we hold our leaders accountable when they fail to serve the public interest. 当人们被剥夺了选举权, it becomes harder for them to advocate for policies that benefit their communities.

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在美国,对投票权的攻击并不是一个新问题, 但在过去的十年里,情况变得更糟了. 自2010年以来, many state governments have shielded themselves from accountability through tactics that weaken democratic institutions by selectively suppressing or diluting votes, 有色人种社区和低收入社区是最常见的目标. 这些策略包括:

资格障碍 比如剥夺重罪犯的公民权, 限制投票登记的时间和程序, 或者激进的选民清洗,将合格选民从名单上删除, 通常要求他们在选举日投临时选票.

投票障碍 比如取消或限制提前投票, 减少目标社区的投票站数量, or enacting strict voter ID laws with provisions or timetables calculated to make voting more difficult for targeted communities, 包括有色人种和学生.

有偏见的代表—manipulating the design of legislative districts to entrench partisan or racial advantage. 这种策略通常被称为不公正划分选区, 削弱了反对派选票的价值 减少了竞争, so that policymakers effectively get to choose their voters rather than the other way around.

选举腐败和保健差距

These undemocratic tactics are not only unjust in themselves—they have policy consequences that hurt people. Our analysis has shown that states with more restrictive voting polices also tend to have worse health outcomes. 除了, legislatures in states with more extreme gerrymandering have been less likely to increase access to health care by expanding Medicaid or providing comprehensive health care services.

Communities targeted by such policies are disproportionately likely to face severe environmental burdens such as air and water pollution. Voter suppression and gerrymandering effectively give polluting industries a green light to continue harming residents of these communities.

此外, there is a vicious-cycle relationship between illness and voter suppression—health problems in a community tend to depress voter turnout, further limiting the community’s ability to use the democratic process to protect itself.

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Targeted communities are fighting back—fighting for their rights and for their lives. 如果我们关心我们517888九五至尊娱乐的未来,我们都需要支持这场斗争.

人口普查的重要性

美国人口普查, 哪一个是每十年拍一次, provides demographic information that the federal government uses for many purposes. Perhaps its most important role in our democracy is its use in determining the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives (and, 因此, 在选举人团中也是如此).

人口普查的准确性直接关系到我们517888九五至尊娱乐的健康, 因为当人们不被计算在内, 他们的社区失去了政治影响力. (It’s important to understand that while only adult US citizens have the right to vote, 法律规定人口普查要统计所有的人口, 公民与否.)

Recently, the Trump administration tried to add a question on citizenship to the Census, in 明显的资本化企图 on the likelihood that immigrants to the US might decline to participate for fear of deportation or other repercussions. 尝试失败了,但它指向 人口普查一直容易受到政治操纵 以及对此类威胁保持警惕的必要性.

全国选举改革

除了 to supporting grassroots efforts to ensure a full census count and implement free and fair elections, we can tell our Congressional representatives to support democracy reform measures such as those listed below—many of which were included in HR1,为人民法案该法案于2019年在众议院获得通过,但未能在参议院获得通过.

消除注册障碍 通过自动选民登记(如“机动选民”法), 当天登记, 高中生也可以提前注册.

保护选民名单不受操纵 by requiring positive evidence of ineligibility before voters can be removed from registration lists.

扩大邮件投票和早期现场投票 为了消除时间有限的人们所产生的不平等, 钱, 或517888九五至尊娱乐灵活性面临狭窄和不灵活的投票期限.

控制不公正的选区划分和党派偏见 通过要求无党派人士, 独立的选区重新划分委员会, 允许州和城市采用多座位, 比例代表法

限制金钱在政治中的力量 通过要求更多地披露企业政治支出, 加强联邦选举委员会, 并转向公共竞选资金.

肃清腐败 with stronger conflict-of-interest laws and tougher requirements for disclosure of contributions from regulated entities.

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