By Gabriel Renelt, Contributing Writer
On Sept. 17, 2026, a date marking the 239th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, and the year of America’s semiquincentennial anniversary, Professor Alauna Safarpour delivered a lecture in the Pennsylvania Hall Lyceum discussing the evolution of voting rights in America.
Professor Safarpour worked on polling on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as an election night analyst for The Washington Post. Her academic research typically revolves around prejudice reduction, political participation and public opinion.
In Professor Safarpour’s opening statements, she chronologically detailed the issue of suffrage in America. She noted that “roughly 6% of the population could take part [in the election of George Washington],” which was the very first general election held in the infantile United States.
She detailed the pendulum-like motion in which voting rights have changed across America using New Jersey as an example of this. “New Jersey’s 1776 constitution granted the right to vote to all inhabitants who met a property requirement and yet three decades later in 1807, the state legislature took that right away,” she noted. This example, she says, exemplifies the entire discussion, states and federal governments, often in bipartisan motions, would grant expanded voting rights for American citizens and quickly back pedal on the notion.
She discussed gerrymandering, as states attempt to make last-second alterations to their congressional boundaries in hopes of gaining more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives for their desired party. Safarpour noted “there are only about 9% of U.S. house seats nationwide that are genuinely competitive.”
“Every genuinely competitive district that disappears is a set of voters whose general election is effectively decided before its ever held” Safarpour detailed. Many fear the implications of gerrymandering for this reason. She said that opponents of gerrymandering believe, as districts become less competitive, voters might not feel inclined to turn out on voting day as they might feel disenfranchised by the lack of true decision.
Later in her presentation, Safarpour used the example of two Supreme Court cases Shelby County v. Holder and the more recent April 2026 case, Louisiana v. Callais, as examples of this effect. The Supreme Court held Louisiana’s new congressional map, which added a second majority black voting district, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Safarpour said that many argue that this decision goes against the original intention of the Voting Rights Act which mandated that states accurately represent minority populations when drawing congressional boundaries. Safarpour stated, “critics hear echoes of 1877, protection withdrawn, and the theory that [minority protection] is no longer needed.”
Professor Safarpour also encouraged students to contact her by email if they have questions about voter registration, mail-in ballots, or needed transportation to deliver mail-in ballots.
