Media

This piece was originally posted on the blog of the Movement Strategy Center

Today, the voters of New Hampshire go to the polls to cast their votes in the first presidential primary. Unfortunately, for the first time, the voters of New Hampshire will face an unnecessary and administratively burdensome photo ID law. Voters in New Hampshire and 15 other states will face new voting restrictions for this first time in a presidential election.  

Political scientists who have studied voter registration have found generally that young and highly mobile people are the ones least likely to be registered. They tend to have lower incomes as well.

For example, in a 2015 report, ‘Why Voting Matters,’ a research associate at Demos, Sean McElwee, found that “white Americans, and particularly affluent white Americans” are much more likely to vote than “people of color, low-income people, and young people.”

The Democratic candidates have revived an old progressive debate about whether big business can be regulated, or must be broken up.

Amy Traub, senior policy analyst at Demos, a public policy organization, told the Public News Service that the vast majority of people who work in New York would benefit from paid family leave.

The average Black household has fewer resources than the average white one — and the disparity is only getting worse. In 2015, the median wealth of white households was 16 times that of Black households, according to a study from Brandeis University and public policy organization Demos. The numbers are stark — while the typical white household has more than $100,000 in assets, the typical Black household has just over $7,000.

Same Day Registration is powerful means to reduce the barriers to voting, by making registration and voting a one-stop process that doesn’t depend on navigating confusing pre-election deadlines.

In the summer of 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 margin, struck down one of the most significant provisions of civil rights law ever enacted.