Welcome to The Markup, VRL’s weekly legislative update. Please consider forwarding The Markup to your colleagues and friends so that we can get this valuable information into more hands.
If you would like to get these weekly updates straight to your inbox going forward, please subscribe here.
Today is Monday, June 27. We are tracking 2,176 bills so far this session, with 579 bills that restrict voter access or election administration and 1,035 bills that improve voter access or election administration. The rest are neutral or mixed or unclear in their impact.
The Bad News: In the final days of session, Arizona lawmakers passed legislation that will revive previously vetoed approaches to voter purges. New Hampshire’s legislature sent the governor a bill that imposes harsh criminal penalties for election administrators. Louisiana enacted legislation prohibiting stand-alone drop boxes.
The Good News: In Arizona, a bill to ensure voters can track the status of their mail ballots online was passed by the legislature. Louisiana enacted legislation to provide voter registration opportunities in high schools and codified an absentee ballot cure process. Delaware appears to be on the verge of enacting same day registration on Election Day. The Safeguard Fair Elections Act, legislation that would provide a number of protections against election threats and intimidation, was introduced into the North Carolina Senate.
Looking Ahead: Missouri Governor Mike Parson is likely to sign H.B. 1878 on Wednesday.
Here are the details:
Arizona lawmakers pass flurry of bills as session ends. The Arizona legislature spent several long days finishing up its work for the 2022 session last week. In addition to passing the state’s budget, the legislature passed several election-related measures to cue them up for either the governor’s signature or their presentation to Arizona voters in the fall. Lawmakers added an amendment to H.B. 2243 before it passed, adding a concerning provision related to voter registration purges, very similar to that which Governor Doug Ducey vetoed earlier this session. In good news, the legislature also passed a bill ensuring voters can track the status of their mail ballots online. If the governor signs it, voters will be able to check online and see when their ballots are received, verified, and counted. The legislature adjourned its regular session sine die shortly after midnight on Saturday.
Missouri’s governor plans to sign legislation that would create in-person early voting, while also tightening the state’s voter ID law. This week, Governor Mike Parson plans to sign H.B. 1878, legislation that would create early voting for the first time in Missouri – but would also make the voter ID law in the state more strict. The bill would create two weeks of in-person early voting via in-person absentee voting. It would also make the state’s ID law more restrictive by eliminating many of the ID types that Missouri voters are currently allowed to show. In Missouri, the governor has 45 days after a bill is passed and the legislature adjourns to sign or veto that bill.
Louisiana facilitates student voter registration and codifies a cure process, while restricting absentee ballot return. Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill that requires all public and charter high schools in the state to provide eligible 17-year-old seniors with an opportunity to register to vote on school computers or paper applications. Louisiana also codified an absentee ballot cure process. While the state already had regulations establishing a notice and cure process, the newly enacted legislation would bar future secretaries of state from eliminating the system.
Louisiana also enacted legislation that would limit the in-person return of absentee ballots to registrars’ offices and early voting sites, prohibiting stand-alone drop boxes. In 2020, the New Orleans City Council won a legal fight allowing local officials to establish alternative, staffed, ballot drop-off sites, which are prohibited under the new legislation.
The Delaware Senate passes legislation that will establish same day registration on Election Day. H.B. 25, a carryover bill from last session, would establish Election Day registration by moving the registration deadline from the Saturday before Election Day to the close of polls on Election Day. The bill has been sent to Governor Jay Carney’s desk.
New Hampshire sends legislation to the governor targeting election administrators. The New Hampshire legislature passed H.B. 1567, which would direct the state attorney general to investigate alleged misconduct by local election officials, make election official misconduct the only misdemeanor for which a conviction results in disenfranchisement, and establish civil penalties of up to $1000 for unintentional misconduct by election officials. If passed, this legislation could interfere with the retention of election officials and make it more difficult to administer elections. The bill is now eligible for the governor’s signature.
The Safeguard Fair Elections Act is introduced in North Carolina. A new bill introduced in North Carolina last week (S.B. 916) would establish criminal penalties for intimidation, threats, or coercion of voters and election officials. The bill would also safeguard election totals by establishing penalties for public officials who refused to certify election results, require political party observers to complete training designed by the State Board of Elections, and establish funding to the State Board of Elections to monitor and track threats to voters and election officials.
This update is powered by VRL’s State Voting Rights Tracker: tracker.votingrightslab.org
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Markup to get our updates straight to your inbox.