Voter suppression

Voter suppression is law, policy, or administrative practice that makes it harder for eligible voters to register, vote, or have their ballots counted — concentrated in ways that fall disproportionately on specific populations. Concrete forms include drastic reductions in polling places in particular neighborhoods, narrow registration windows, restrictive identification requirements introduced without compensating access, mass challenges to lawful registrations, and the elimination of voting methods (mail, early, Sunday voting) that specific communities have come to depend on. The publication does not treat ordinary, evenhanded administration of elections as suppression — the standard is differential burden on eligible voters, and that judgment turns on documented effects, not on the stated motives of those imposing the rules.