American elections; Do the people elect the officials or the people’s officials?
American states are trying to change constituencies in a way that benefits their party.
The mid-term elections of the American Congress, which are scheduled to be held next Tuesday, have once again put the unhealthy voting mechanisms in the spotlight in this country.
In this regard, Reuters reported that since 2020, US states have enacted more than 30 new restrictions, from laws requiring people to present identification documents when voting to restricting postal voting.
Republicans, who have mostly not rejected former US President Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, say these measures are important to ensure the integrity of the election. Democrats, on the other hand, say the restrictions are meant to make it harder to get out the vote in traditionally Democratic districts.
For example, a Reuters report shows that as of 2020, 11 US states have enacted stricter voter ID laws.
Of course, the critics of such measures are not opposed to the voters’ identity being registered, and this is done in all states, but the problem is with the documents that are required to verify the identity of the voters.
Unlike many European countries where government-issued IDs abound, surveys show that millions of voters in the United States do not have photo ID.
