Ten States Bar Communist Party from the Ballot in November 1940 Elections
Ten states, it was reported on this day, had barred the Communist Party from appearing on the ballot in the fall 1940 elections.
See the protests of the efforts to keep the Communist Party and other political groups off the ballot by the ACLU, on July 31, 1940, and by the National Lawyers Guild on September 11, 1940. California barred the Communist Party from the ballot on September 22, 1940.
Longstanding anti-Communist feeling was accentuated by the fact that, in August 1939, Joseph Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Adolph Hitler. Within days, the pact paved the way for the German invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Anti-Communist feelings were far less intense by the time of the 1944 elections because, by then, Hitler had broken his pact and invaded the Soviet Union, resulting in the Soviet Union becoming a major U.S. ally in the war against Hitler.
The June 25, 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which invalidated key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, opened the door for new voter suppression activities by Republicans. This effort intensified after the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump. See the links below for reports on voter suppression activity.
Learn about current state laws on ballot access for major and minor political parties.
Learn about the history of the right to vote: Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000)
Read the Brennan Center’s March 2021 report on voter suppression here
Learn about the ACLU’s work on voter suppression today here