The Battle Over Voting Rights And The Sore Thumb That is Utah
A political migration might be the change we need to see.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, numerous states with Republican statehouse majorities passed new laws restricting access to the ballot, mail-in voting, and increasing voter ID requirements. Utah, with GOP supermajorities in both houses and the governor’s mansion, passed one tiny provision to clean up the voting records for dead people. The catch? Utah is 86% white. 5% are of other races and the rest? They’re mutts.
In every state that enacted burdensome new laws to restrict access to the polls, there is a significant black, immigrant, or otherwise marginalized demographic. If I wanted to prove intent to discriminate against minorities in any other Red State, Utah is the standard upon which to judge them.
I find it so interesting that no one on the national stage has discussed the fact that Utah has permitted no excuse vote by mail for all elections since 2013. I haven’t been to a polling place in years. I get my ballot automatically every time there is an election. Utah has a system in place to look for irregularities in voting patterns, but they didn’t go nuts after the election as some other states did.
