title:  REPORT: Civil Rights Groups Say Voter Suppression Is Responsible For Trump’s Win
text: In the wake of election day and Donald Trump s win, many Americans have been left scratching their heads and wondering just what the heck happened. According to a report by McClatchy, some civil rights groups say that voter suppression is what happened.Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers  Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that in hindsight,  we will find that voter suppression figured prominently in the story surrounding the 2016 presidential election. While voter suppression is hardly the only factor that brought us to this point, as McClatchy explains, it did play an important role. Fourteen states had restrictive new voting laws on the books for the first time in a presidential election this year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law: Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.The laws included a mix of photo ID requirements for voters, cuts to early voting opportunities and curbs on voter registration activity. These laws began to spread across the country after the midterm elections of 2010, supposedly to protect against voter fraud, which is virtually nonexistent by the way.The Brennan Center reports that  10 states have imposed stricter voter ID laws, seven made registration more difficult, six have cut early voting opportunities and three have made it harder to restore voting rights to people with criminal convictions.  The center explains that these laws, which have been fueled by race and partisanship, disproportionately affect minorities, the poor, and younger voters; all groups who tend to lean to the left.Clarke said on Thursday that systemic barriers weren t the only obstacles voters faced this year. Long lines at polling places, voters whose names were missing from registration lists, a lack of assistance for non-English speaking voters, and  poll workers who requested strict photo ID in states where no such ID was required  also made it much harder to cast a ballot than it should have been.Wade Henderson, the president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said that groups monitoring the election  have documented beyond any doubt that voter suppression and a conscious effort to shave off 1 or 2 percent of the vote in key states, in all likelihood, influenced the outcome of this election. Activists also voiced concerns about purges of  inactive  voters from registration rolls in numerous states and a drastic reduction in polling places across the country.A report by the leadership conference found that voting locations were reduced in about 43 percent   or 165   of 381 counties that were previously covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The result: There were 868 fewer sites in which to cast a ballot in those jurisdictions with histories of discriminatory voting practices.It is worth noting that many of these laws were only able to be enacted because of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. While voter suppression is hardly the only factor responsible for Trump s win, it very well may have been what tipped the scales in his favor.Featured image via Sandbox News