Voting rights, unsettled
As the highly charged presidential election nears on Nov. 8, voters in some states may find it more difficult to cast their ballots. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 14 states will have new voting restrictions in place, ranging from photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions. Proponents of voting restrictions argue that these are common-sense measures aimed at preventing fraud (despite studies that show voter fraud is extremely rare), while critics charge that the restrictions are politically motivated to suppress turnout, particularly among minorities. To examine the debate in historical perspective, the Gazette spoke to Alex Keyssar ’69, Ph.D. ’77, the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and author of “The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States.” In a question-and-answer session, Keyssar — who is currently teaching the HKS course “Voting Rights...