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ABSTRACT
For racial and ethnic minorities, voting is equated with citizenship and decision-making power. However, despite proclamations of freedom, justice, and equality, state legislatures across the country have enacted disenfranchisement laws to marginalize the voice of those deemed as "the other." Using the social construction of target populations and critical race theory as the theoretical framework, this study analyzes state legislative trends to explain and underscore the implications of policies designed to impose a specific effect on target populations. This article argues that disenfranchisement becomes apparent through the implementation of colorblind policies that impose a financial hardship, create confusion, limits access to the ballot, dilute the vote geographically, or use subjective measures of eligibility. The result is a disproportionate effect on racial and ethnic minorities that prevents full access to the rights and privileges associated with being an American citizen.
INTRODUCTION
Justice and democracy are fundamental to American society, at least according to the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights, which argue for the inalienable rights of all 'citizens'1 to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. In the United States, suffrage is equated to citizenship and citizenship defines membership, decision-making authority, and deservingness. Despite such proclamations, citizenship has been historically conceptualized by what hooks (2013) calls the "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" framework (p. 4). This phrase represents the multiple systems of oppressions that marginalize minorities (by white supremacy), the poor (by capitalist exploitation), women (by patriarchy), and other groups that do not adhere to the dominant conceptualizations of power. The intersection of race, class, gender, age, and ability reveals a status hierarchy that influences public policy and determines the allocation of benefits and burdens across demographic groups. According to hooks (2013) "This phrase is useful precisely because it does not prioritize one system over another but rather offers us a way to think about the interlocking systems that work together to uphold and maintain cultures of domination" (p. 4). Therefore, the antithesis to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy means to be deemed as "the other" in American society. This designation of "the other" has historically been associated with minorities, women, homosexuals, and the disabled, which has justified their exclusion from full participation in society. Consequently, the dual causality of public policy and social...