A Voter Restriction/Access Thread

[Dill]

   
Given the widespread legislative focus on election/voting laws following the 2020 election, I thought it might be useful to devote a thread to this phenomenon--the laws, their motivation, and their likely consequences. According to the Brennan center, 106 laws proposed in 28 states would restrict access to insure process "integrity," while 406 in 35 states would increase it in the name of voters "rights".

Lurking behind the integrity/rights labels are, of course, our old friends the "voter fraud" and "voter suppression" issues.

I detect some party alignment with these issues as well.
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Voting Laws Roundup: January 2021: After historic turnout and increased mail voting in 2020, state lawmakers across the country are pulling in opposite directions by introducing restrictive and expansive voting legislation.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-january-2021

The 2021 legislative sessions have begun in all but six states, and state lawmakers have already introduced hundreds of bills aimed at election procedures and voter access — vastly exceeding the number of voting bills introduced by this time last year.

In a backlash to historic voter turnout in the 2020 general election, and grounded in a rash of baseless and racist allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities, legislators have introduced three times the number of bills to restrict voting access as compared to this time last year. Twenty-eight states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 106 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states on February 3, 2020).

Of course, other state lawmakers are seizing on an energized electorate and persistent interest in democracy reform (which is likewise reflected in Congress). To date, thirty-five states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 406 bills to expand voting access (dwarfing the 188 expansive bills that were filed in twenty-nine states as of February 3, 2020). Notably 93 such bills were introduced in New York and New Jersey.

With unprecedented numbers of voters casting their ballots by mail in 2020, legislators across the country have shown particular interest in absentee voting reform, with more than a quarter of voting and election bills addressing absentee voting procedures. Only seven of the forty-one states that have introduced election bills have not proposed policies to alter absentee voting procedures in some way.

Also in reaction to 2020, four states have proposed legislation that would modify how presidential electors are allocated, and eleven states have introduced bills to adopt the national popular vote compact.

Overview of Restrictive Bills

Thus far this year, 28 states have introduced, prefiled, or carried over 106 bills to restrict voting access. These proposals primarily seek to: (1) limit mail voting access; (2) impose stricter voter ID requirements; (3) limit successful pro-voter registration policies; and (4) enable more aggressive voter roll purges. These bills are an unmistakable response to the unfounded and dangerous lies about fraud that followed the 2020 election.

Pennsylvania leads the nation in proposed voter suppression legislation in 2021, with 14 restrictive policy proposals. New Hampshire comes in second (11 bills), followed by Missouri (9 bills), and Mississippi, New Jersey, and Texas (8 bills each). Georgia lawmakers reportedly plan to introduce bills to require an excuse to cast an absentee ballot, mandate photo ID when returning an absentee ballot, and ban ballot drop boxes, among other harsh restrictions.