Voter Suppression Playbook: Tactics from the 1980s Recycled to Silence Black Votes

Following the 2020 election, charges of “voter fraud” and “stolen elections” preoccupied the national political discourse. Since then, in many states across the country, voters have faced changes to voting legislation that threaten Black political participation. In fact, the Brennan Center for Justice reports, “Voters in 27 states will face restrictions in the 2024 election that they’ve never experienced in a presidential election before.” Many of these restrictions go beyond complicating the voting process—they create a culture of fear around the ballot. For example, in Georgia, under electioneering laws, 1 Electioneering refers to a political candidate’s campaign or a political party taking actions to convince voters to support their candidate or party. When it comes to polling locations, every state has laws in place that restrict the ability of political operatives to interact with or influence voters. it is now illegal to provide voters with food or water while they wait in line. 2 Ga. Code § 21-2-414 (prohibits distributing gifts including food or drink within 150 feet of the outer edge of the building where a polling place is established). And in Texas, the legislature passed Senate Bill 1 criminalizing “vote harvesting,” which restricts the ability of get-out-the-vote campaigns to provide and deliver mail-in ballots to voters. 3 Office of Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, Press Release: Attorney General Ken Paxton Secures Major Win; Texas Election Integrity Law Banning Vote Harvesting Schemes Will Remain in Effect for November Elections, October 16, 2024, available at https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-secures-major-win-texas-election-integrity-law-banning-vote-harvesting. On October 15, 2024, “a federal judge ruled that five additional provisions targeting voter assistance violate the Voting Rights Act.” While these laws should concern everyone, they present a particular challenge for voters who are elderly or who have disabilities and may rely on these resources to cast their votes. 

However palpable the threat of rampant anti-voter legislation, this moment is not unprecedented. Attacks on voting rights stretch back to the Reconstruction Era, when state legislatures first enacted measures such as felony disenfranchisement and gerrymandering—practices that continue to suppress Black political participation today.  

But just as attempts to limit voting power are not new, neither is the resistance of Black communities. In 1978, Maggie Bozeman and Julia Wilder were arrested for providing absentee ballots to Black residents of Pickens County, Alabama, who could not vote in a school board election in person because they were homebound or elderly and/or they could not read.

While Bozeman and Wilder handled the ballots in good faith, the district attorney argued that technical mistakes on the ballots constituted voter fraud. The two women were convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to years in prison.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) fought on behalf of Bozeman and Wilder starting in 1982, arguing that their convictions were unconstitutional. Not only did this work result in the reversal of their convictions, but it also strengthened the campaign for congressional reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Outraged and emboldened by this example of injustice, supporters resoundingly called for voter protections and secured a successful reauthorization that year. Bozeman and Wilder’s story shows that a grassroots movement to support voting rights can win.

Today, LDF continues the fight for voting rights, recognizing that this work must take place both inside and outside of the courtroom. To that end, LDF’s Black Voters on the Rise initiative has been focused on voter education ahead of the November 5, 2024, election. 

Arming voters with information in the face of fear, the project builds on lessons learned from Bozeman and Wilder’s case: that it is the people’s right to go to polls and bring their community with them. 

publication date: November 1, 2024