{"id":94,"date":"2026-05-23T18:37:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-05-23T18:37:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T18:37:51","slug":"vote-while-you-still-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usabusinesschronicle.com\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Vote While You Still Can"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Hungarians went to the polls last month to defeat the authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, they did so in record numbers. A historic 77.8 percent of voters cast ballots\u2014Hungary\u2019s highest turnout ever.<\/p>\n

Read more What Mark Twain Could Teach Pete Hegseth About Holy War<\/a><\/p>\n

The last time U.S. voter turnout came close to that level was in 1900 (73.2 percent), when William McKinley beat Williams Jennings Bryan. Since then, presidential elections have typically turned out fewer than two-thirds of voting-age Americans (in the 1980s and \u201890s, it was closer to half). Even in 2024\u2014which had the highest turnout since 1968\u2014just of Americans voted.<\/p>\n

Americans take for granted their right to vote\u2014which is why it\u2019s in such jeopardy today.<\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding alarmist, America may have had its last free and fair election in 2024. The Trump administration, together with its Republican allies and conservatives on the Supreme Court, have systematically\u2014and successfully\u2014waged a campaign to disenfranchise large swathes of U.S. voters. America is collapsing toward \u201ccompetitive authoritarianism\u201d\u2014\u201celectoral competition that is real but unfair,\u201d in the words of democracy scholars Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way.<\/p>\n

Racist redistricting. <\/strong>Millions of Black Americans could soon lose their voice in Congress, thanks to the Supreme Court. Last week, the Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, ruling that a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana was \u201can unconstitutional racial gerrymander.\u201d This week, the Supreme Court expedited the effective date of its decision\u2014thereby clearing the way for Louisiana to redraw its districts in time for the midterms. Republican Governor Jeff Landry has suspended the primaries, even though 42,000 Louisianans had already cast their ballots.<\/p>\n

As many as 19 majority-minority districts could eventually be drawn out of existence, according to the civil rights group Fair Fights Action. On Thursday, Tennessee unveiled a new map that carves up majority-Black Memphis and would likely eliminate its sole majority-minority district. \u201cNot since Jim Crow have we seen this level of systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters,\u201d said Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clark in a statement.<\/p>\n

Burdensome ID requirements.<\/strong> Trump has demanded federal legislation requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote\u2014though noncitizen voting is practically nonexistent. The so-called \u201cSAVE Act\u201d has yet to pass Congress, but some states are moving forward with their own versions. Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Florida SAVES Act, which requires proof of citizenship and limits the kind of ID that voters can present at the polls (student IDs, for example, would no longer be accepted). Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia have also passed harsher voter ID laws. The Brennan Center for Justice estimates that as many as 21 million Americans lack ready access to a birth certificate or passport, which this type of legislation typically requires. Many married women may also find themselves disenfranchised if their birth certificates don\u2019t match their married names.<\/p>\n

Limits on vote by mail.<\/strong> Trump is also trying to limit access to vote by mail\u2014which nearly relied on in 2024 to cast their ballots. In an executive order issued in March, Trump decreed that all mail-in ballots must be handled by the U.S. Postal Service, and that only voters on federally approved \u201cstate citizenship lists\u201d would be allowed to vote. The National Rural Letter Carriers Association warned that rural voters could be especially burdened. \u201cAny policy that creates confusion, delays, or places barriers in the handling of election mail will fall hardest on those voters who already face the greatest obstacles to accessing in-person voting,\u201d the association said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attempt to limit vote by mail is likely unlawful. The U.S. Constitution reserves to states the power to govern the \u201cTimes, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives,\u201d and his executive order has already drawn legal challenges. Proof of citizenship requirements are also more likely to disadvantage Republicans, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center (Democrats are more likely to have passports), which means the SAVE Act won\u2019t deliver the partisan benefits Trump assumes it will deliver.<\/p>\n

Yet these are small consolations in comparison to the damage that Trump and the GOP have already done, both to Americans\u2019 right to vote but also to their faith in U.S. elections. According to a March PBS News\/NPR\/Marist survey, more than a third of Americans are \u201cnot very confident\u201d or \u201cnot at all confident\u201d that their local elections will be fair this fall.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one solution. Americans must take their cues from the Hungarians. They must vote.<\/p>\n

Read more The Secret Plan to Murder a Pope<\/a><\/p>\n

New at the <\/strong>Monthly\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Don\u2019t despair for Pax Americana. <\/strong>In less than a year, Trump has managed to rip up the international alliances that have ensured relative global stability for the last 80 years. But Monthly<\/em> Editor in Chief Paul Glastris argues that it\u2019s far too early to write the epitaph for a U.S.-led global order. \u201cThe same power that makes America capable of doing vast damage also enables it to do great good,\u201d Paul writes in his Editor\u2019s Note for the latest print issue of the Monthly<\/em>. \u201cThe world understands that.\u201d Read here.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the spring issue, featuring some of our favorite pieces from the last few months:<\/p>\n

Too comfortably numb.<\/strong> Many Americans have not only become inured to the idea of political violence\u2014they now welcome it. More than 80 percent of MAGA voters in a new University of California-Davis survey \u201csaid the American way of life was disappearing so fast that force may be required to save it,\u201d writes contributing writer Rob Shapiro. Worse, 11 percent said they would personally<\/em> be willing to use violence against government officials to achieve their aims. But Democrats aren\u2019t exactly all that dovish either; surveys show that they too are becoming more tolerant of political violence. Read here.<\/p>\n

College cost confusion.<\/strong> Last week, we reported on an effort by colleges to water down legislation requiring more transparency in tuition pricing and financial aid. That\u2019s a decision colleges may come to regret\u2014new polling from Strada Education shows that a root cause of public anger at higher education is the lack of clarity and simplicity in college financial aid offers. \u201cThis confusion about college costs and financial aid appears to be breeding public mistrust about the main interests that motivate institutions,\u201d writes former University of Kentucky provost Michael Nietzel. Many Americans in the Strada survey said they thought colleges cared more about making money than educating students. Read here.<\/p>\n

Plus\u2026<\/p>\n