The strident yet subtle language of vote suppression

There are many ways to suppress a vote. If you’ve followed elections in various states over the past two years, you’ll recognize such strategies as the purging of voting rolls, the elimination of same-day voting, and the shortening of early voting periods.

There’s the requirement of government issued photo ID’s, and the disqualification of any voter registrations that lack an “exact match” among government documents required for identification.

Then there’s the consolidation of polling places in certain districts, the last-minute switching of polling places to confuse voters, and the long line...