Reduction in the Number of Polling Places: Where and Why

In the documentary we watched regarding voting rights, one key point made was that in certain states, the accessibility to voting booths and pollings places, as well as strict laws, are a couple of reasons why our country as a poor voter turnout. I decided to look into this issue and discovered that over the past ten years, a significant number of polling places have been closed. Federal data regarding midterm elections shows that "between the 2012 and 2016 elections, the number of physical polling places reported to the Election Assistance Commission by local authorities fell by nearly 3,000." And "Indiana and Wyoming.. reported reductions in their number of physical polling places by well over 20 percent." To pinpoint why exactly these polling places are being closed is difficult, especially since data from a lot of counties are missing. However, based on the data available, there are potential conclusions that can be made about this trend. Some argue that the places are reduced to prevent certain voters, like African-Americans, from casting ballots. Since some of the data are missing, it's hard to say definitively whether this is true or not, but it's important to look at the Southern states (those with majority black populations) that close their polling places through a loophole. Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, some states were "subject to extra federal scrutiny because of a history of discriminatory voting regulations," otherwise known as "pre-clearance." However, after these changes were eliminated by the Supreme Court in 2013, some states that were subject to pre-clearance, such as Arizona and Louisiana, "reported significant drops." Again, the county-level data is not substantial enough to establish a clear relationship, but it could be reductions in areas that "predominantly affect precincts with large black populations" are going "unnoticed" because of increases in polling places in other states. While more data needs to be analyzed, it is important to note that reductions in polling places in states that already have strict voting laws definitely impact elections and voter turnout. 

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/26/thousands-polling-places-were-closed-over-past-decade-heres-where/