The Center for Public Integrity and Stateline recently launched an investigative series, “Barriers to the Ballot Box,” that provides data on polling place availability for elections from 2012-2018. The information may shed new light on how voting access has been limited since the U.S. Supreme Court weakened voter protections. The article discussing the release of the data cites Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies and Associated Faculty in the History Department. Read the excerpt below along with the full piece: “National Data Release Sheds Light on Past Polling Place Changes.”

“When you have that kind of disparity in population, you’re going to have a disparity in wait times, a disparity in access,” said Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University and author of the book One Person, No Vote. “And long lines then lead to their own form of voter suppression. People have to leave. People get discouraged.”

This year, a primary season marred by unprecedented polling place consolidations forced by the coronavirus pandemic, featuring indelible images of voters standing in hours long lines to cast ballots, added new urgency.