Connecticut’s state constitution makes voting harder for people who can’t take time off from work, travel to the polls or navigate long lines, which disproportionately hurts voters of color. But a proposed constitutional amendment and a push for the Democratic-controlled state to adopt a version of the federal Voting Rights Act could change that landscape […]
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In high-barrier Oklahoma, gerrymandering assures GOP control
In deep red Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers have taken a few actions in the name of election security since the 2020 presidential election that make it more difficult to vote. Lawmakers have passed measures to conduct random audits after elections, to alert law enforcement if more than 10 are registered to vote at a single address […]
Maryland expands access to absentee and early voting
Maryland has been among the most aggressive states in the country over the past two years in making access to voting more equitable. Since 2020, the heavily Democratic Maryland state legislature has passed and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed new state laws that expand access to early voting and absentee ballots; improve voting access for […]
Montana sued after GOP targets Indigenous and younger voters with new laws
What advocates call a “cocktail” of new voter suppression laws in Montana, disproportionately disenfranchising the state’s Indigenous population and younger voters, were struck down by a judge in September. The laws, ruled unconstitutional, had been on hold under a temporary injunction since April. The decision could be appealed. All three laws emerged from the 2021 […]
Maine’s progressive stance on voting stumbles over ban on early voting
Many aspects of voting in Maine are among the most progressive in the country. It pioneered ranked-choice voting. It’s the only place besides Vermont and Washington, D.C., that guarantees voting rights for all adult citizens, regardless of criminal convictions or incarceration. It has same-day voter registration, and automatic voter registration when getting an ID or […]
South Dakota bans private support of election costs, ends use of drop boxes
South Dakota is in court again over policies that disenfranchise Indigenous voters. Many counties eliminated absentee ballot drop boxes that were used in a limited way in 2020, and the state passed a new law banning private foundations and individuals from funding part of the expenses of running local elections when government support falls short. […]
Arizona sued by DOJ over requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote
Amid a failed attempt by supporters of former President Donald Trump to throw out the state’s 2020 election results based on false accusations of voter fraud, Republicans who control Arizona’s state legislature and governor’s office passed significant new obstacles to voting. New laws allow for the purging of names from the state’s mail-in ballot voting […]
In Nevada, expanded access to voting tested by GOP embrace of ‘Big Lie’
Nevada has broadly expanded access to voting in recent years, restoring rights for individuals convicted of a felony, establishing universal access to mail-in ballots and increasing the number of polling places and drop boxes. It happened after Democrats won control of both the state legislature and governor’s office, but also under the watch of Republican […]
New York adopts a state Voting Rights Act while rejecting wider ballot access
Voting in New York is a work in progress. In the past year, the state adopted a new Voting Rights Act, but its voters shot down an opportunity to make mail-in voting broadly available. In these midterms, advocates’ most pressing concern is the lack of education around unnecessarily complicated absentee ballot changes. Deadlines to request […]
‘A torrential downpour of legislation:’ Voting in Arkansas gets much harder
Voting in Arkansas was made considerably more difficult by a slew of new laws last year that create stricter voter ID requirements, signature matching, a special voter fraud hotline (despite no evidence of fraud), earlier absentee voting deadlines and much more. In March, an Arkansas judge found many of these measures unconstitutional, but the state’s […]
In Idaho, a flood of voting restrictions could be coming
A single Republican state senator who rejects former President Donald Trump’s false accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election has blocked a slew of proposed restrictions on voting rights in Idaho. Her retirement this fall and the state Republican Party’s sharp turn toward Trump’s right-wing conspiracy theory talking points have advocates bracing for […]
Ballot curing chaos looms over Pennsylvania midterms
A court decision finding no explicit right in Pennsylvania to “cure” absentee ballots rejected due to minor paperwork mistakes, along with state Republicans’ aggressive attempts to roll back widespread use of mail-in ballots, is setting the stage for chaos in this November’s midterm elections. Along with a ban on outside funding of local elections and […]
Colorado makes it easier to vote while guarding against conspiracy theorists
Colorado has continued to improve access to voting in the past two years, but advocates are urging an end to the state’s disenfranchisement of people who’ve been convicted of felonies. In a different time, small improvements in voting access in Colorado would seem “niche” to wider observers. But baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud spurred […]
Missouri’s new election law restricts registration drives, requires photo ID
Missouri’s Republican leaders have long placed restrictions on voting that have been shown to disproportionately impact Black and Latino citizens. Since the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud led to his re-election loss, they’ve doubled down, passing a strict new photo ID requirement and making it a crime to […]
South Carolina restricts absentee voting, faces suit over gerrymandering
Earlier this year, South Carolina’s state legislature passed a wave of new election restrictions in a state that was already one of the most difficult places to vote in the country. Republicans in control of the legislature and governor’s office enacted S108 in May 2022. While it created a 12-day early voting period that hadn’t […]
Voting rights under attack in Georgia as state turns purple
Hours-long lines at polling places, baseless allegations of fraud and a law that makes voting more difficult have drawn international attention to Georgia elections. In a state with a long history of voter suppression, changes in advance of the 2020 election made casting a ballot easier for Georgians. Voters could drop their ballots off in […]
In Kansas, inequality in voting widens with new limits
Under threat of prosecution because of Kansas’ new election laws, the state’s League of Women Voters has stopped organizing voter registration drives. A strict ID requirement — left to local election officials to interpret — prevents some people from voting at the polls. If a voter casts their ballot absentee instead, the state’s subjective signature […]
Utah voters want independent redistricting. GOP lawmakers are fighting it.
Over the past year, partisan gerrymandering during Utah’s redistricting process has resulted in protests at the state capitol and legal challenges by voting rights groups. The League of Women Voters of Utah and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government filed a lawsuit alleging that the new maps — which were created last year after 2020 […]
In Kentucky, rare bipartisan support for expanded voting access
Kentucky surprised many in 2020 when, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials reached a bipartisan compromise expanding vote by mail and early voting access in a state that historically had some of the most restrictive voting access laws in the country. Kentucky has continued to buck national trends ever since. Lawmakers in the […]
Mail deadlines, drop boxes limit Minnesota’s progressive voting access
From voter registration up to and on Election Day to a weeks-long early voting period to no required voter ID, it’s easy to see why Minnesota leads the country with the highest voter turnout at nearly 80%. However, advocates said Minnesota could improve equity in voting in a few areas, including increased access to absentee […]
In divided Virginia, move toward greater voting equity on pause
Under a Democratic-controlled legislature and former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, Virginia repealed its old photo ID requirements ahead of the 2020 presidential election, started registering voters automatically through the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and opened absentee ballots to any registered voter, without requiring a specific reason or excuse. With a legislature whose control is […]
Court victories deliver cautious hope for voters with disabilities
Paralyzed from the neck down, downtown Milwaukee resident Martha Chambers has difficulty voting. This story also appeared in Stateline She can use a mouth stick to mark her ballot and sign her name on an absentee ballot, but she has no way of folding the ballot, slipping it back in the envelope or returning it […]
Voters in jail face ‘de facto disenfranchisement’
Each election cycle, thousands of eligible voters are effectively disenfranchised because they sit in a jail cell. Americans detained before trials are allowed to vote, a status affirmed by a 1974 Supreme Court case. As a matter of law, pretrial detainees are presumed innocent and retain the voting rights they had before being charged with […]
Indigenous journalists make way for sunshine
This story also appeared in The Investigative Reporting Workshop Lori Edmo just wanted to find out how her tribe was spending federal COVID-19 relief money. As a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, on the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho, she knew her tribal government had received more than $17 million in CARES Act funding […]
Redistricting: Tribes fight for an equal voice
This story also appeared in Investigate West and The Investigative Reporting Workshop The Columbia and Okanogan Rivers to the east, south and west of the Colville Indian Reservation form natural borders on a map of north-central Washington. On the ground, the reservation’s forested hills and lakes juxtaposed with vast grasslands have fueled the tribes’ economic […]
A battleground fight over polling places and voting rights in Georgia
As a half-dozen voting rights advocates filed into the Lincoln County Board of Elections to deliver a petition that temporarily halted plans to shutter polling places, the tension between them and elections director Lilvender Bolton was nearly palpable. This story also appeared in Georgia Public Broadcasting and NPR After spending the afternoon anxiously watching the […]
New anti-protest laws cast a long shadow on First Amendment rights
This story also appeared in HuffPost and Indian Country Today Tiffany Crutcher was worried. Oklahoma lawmakers had passed a new measure stiffening penalties for protesters who block roadways and granting immunity to drivers who unintentionally hit them. The state NAACP, saying the law was passed in response to racial justice demonstrations and could chill the […]
New data tracks polling place locations for 37 states
The Center for Public Integrity is releasing a dataset of polling place locations used in the 2020 general election to help journalists and researchers analyze access to the ballot box and the potential impact of a slew of changes to state election laws. The new data release, available via Github, includes polling place locations and […]
Challenges to the Voting Rights Act far from over
When the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important voting rights case earlier this year, its ruling made it more difficult for voters to challenge restrictive state voting laws. Now, the state of Texas is making an argument that, if adopted, would further hobble use of what remains of the Voting Rights Act. In a brief […]
Pro-Trump nonprofit gives millions to groups boosting his agenda
A nonprofit closely tied to former President Donald Trump and his administration gave millions of dollars in 2020 to an array of conservative groups, a new tax filing from the nonprofit, now called America First Works, shows. The largest grant to an outside group, nearly $4.8 million, went to Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund often […]