Publication Date
3-2025
Document Type
Winner of the American Constitution Society Constance Baker Motley Student Writing Competition
First Page
218
Abstract
Research in the social sciences has long indicated that racial minorities and class-disadvantaged voters wait longer to vote, receive more confusing answers from poll workers, and vote at locations with worse lighting, signage, parking, and facilities for the disabled. With voting environments as they are, people can vote, but voting will be more difficult if they live in disadvantaged communities. Consequently, voter turnout under these conditions is lower. This Note argues that the effect of low-quality, “hostile” voting environments on democratic participation is a violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in the same way as directly disenfranchising actions. Section I provides an empirical justification for the claim that there is a race-class gap in voting precinct quality, and assigns two root causes to this disparity: the extreme localism of American election administration and a deliberate under-resourcing and neglect of communities of color. Section II argues that these poll sites violate equal protection and the state’s affirmative obligations established in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Section III acknowledges the feasibility gap between establishing that inadequate voting environments cause legal injury and providing a cost-effective remedy to improve poll site quality, and suggests decoupling the relationship between voting and physical location.
Repository Citation
Eva
Quinones,
Hostile Voting Environments: Conceptualizing Race-Class Disparities in Polling Places as Disenfranchisement,
27
U. Pa. J. Const. L.
218
(2025).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jcl/vol27/iss1/4
