A Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend them Back

by Bruce Schneier

Alabama still employs a variety of voter-suppression tactics to limit the participation of felons, minorities, immigrants, and rural voters in the election system. Alabama’s barriers to voting rights begin with registration. The state doesn’t offer electronic voter registration, registration in DMV offices, automatic voter registration, election day registration, or any sort of preregistration for coming-of-age voters. State law requires people to show proof of citizenship in order to register. This law has not been implemented because of an ongoing federal investigation, but if allowed to stand, it will have the effect of denying the vote disproportionately to minority citizens, who often don’t have passports or other documentation. Kansas has turned away thousands of new voters from the polls using a similar rule.