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Today is Monday, August 14. We are tracking 1,885 bills so far this session across all 50 states, with 397 bills that restrict voter access or election administration and 898 bills that improve voter access or election administration. The rest are neutral, mixed, or unclear in their impact.
The Bad News: There will be no grace period for North Carolina voters unaware of the state’s new strict photo ID requirement, despite clear legislative intent to allow those unaware of the new law to still cast a ballot in the first year.
The Good News: Returning citizens in Alaska will receive free photo IDs upon release from incarceration. An effort to make it more difficult for Ohio voters to change the state constitution failed.
Looking Ahead: In North Carolina, S.B. 747 is slated to be heard in the House tomorrow. Despite improvements since the bill passed the Senate in June, it would still require election officials to discard valid ballots cast by registered voters if they are postmarked by Election Day but received after. The bill could be up for a floor vote as soon as Thursday. The Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit that will determine whether voters will have access to drop boxes and third-party return options for mail ballots in the 2024 election.
Here are the details:
Despite the original legislative intent to provide a grace period, North Carolina will not allow voters who are unaware of the state’s new strict photo ID requirement to cast a ballot this year by signing an affidavit to that effect. The North Carolina State Board of Elections reversed course on a plan that would permit a voter to cast a ballot without presenting an ID if they executed an affidavit stating that they were unaware of the requirement. Passed in 2018, North Carolina’s voter ID law established that voters who are unaware of the new ID requirements could cast their ballot without ID in 2019 if they signed an affidavit to that effect. Due to extensive court challenges, the law did not take effect until April of this year, when a newly configured North Carolina Supreme Court reversed an earlier state supreme court decision. The state board had intended to follow the original legislative intent to permit voters unaware of the requirement to vote without ID for the first year the law is actually in effect, but backed down after extensive political pressure – meaning that there will be no grace period for voters unaware of the new law for municipal elections this year.
Alaska will use Department of Corrections data during voter registration and issue free photo IDs upon discharge from incarceration. Under S.B. 119, enacted in Alaska last week, the director of the Division of Elections is required to enter into an agreement with the Department of Corrections to match voter registration information with the data held by the administrative component of that department that issues identification cards. The bill also requires the Department of Corrections to issue free photo IDs upon discharge from incarceration.
Ohio voters reject Issue 1 in statewide special election. On August 8, approximately 57 percent of electors in Ohio voted against a constitutional amendment proposed by a joint resolution from the Ohio General Assembly. The amendment, if passed, would have required the approval of at least 60 percent of eligible voters in order to make any change to the Ohio constitution. Existing law requires just a simple majority. Additionally, the change would have required that any ballot initiative petition to amend the Ohio constitution be signed by at least five percent of the electors in each county. Current law only requires signatures from at least five percent of electors in 44 of the 88 counties. Many viewed this referendum as a proxy fight over the proposed abortion rights amendment that will be on the ballot statewide in November.
GOP files motion to intervene in Wisconsin mail ballot lawsuit. The Republican National Committee, Republican Party of Wisconsin, and other GOP groups filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate drop boxes and third-party return options for mail ballots in the state. Wisconsin state law is silent about the use of drop boxes, but the state’s supreme court banned their use in 2022. With the court having now flipped to a majority that is apparently favorable to voter access, the lawsuit seeks to overturn the previous ruling and reinstate the practice.
This update is powered by VRL’s State Voting Rights Tracker: tracker.votingrightslab.org