Government seeks to punish private business

[j.p.]

It requires certain kinds of government identification to vote — not typically owned by low income and minority communities. And it shortens early voting days. The law also makes it illegal to offer food or water to would-be voters standing in long lines to cast their ballots. Election officials closed polling places across the state, leaving even fewer available in mostly Black communities. The long lines are a discriminatory signature of Black voting areas — but not in mostly white communities where there are more polling places relative to the population and voters rarely stand in line.