Welcome to The Markup, our weekly insights and analysis of the latest in election law and policy.
We are tracking 1,809 bills so far this session across 44 states and Washington, D.C., with 322 bills that restrict voter access or election administration and 897 bills that improve voter access or election administration.
RESTRICTING VOTER ACCESS OR ELECTION ADMINISTRATION
The U.S. Supreme Court allows Virginia to proceed with voter purges.
The Court granted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s request to pause a lower court’s ruling that halted the state’s last-minute voter purge program due to a conflict with federal law. The purge, which claims to identify noncitizens, relies on flawed DMV data and has resulted in the removal of U.S. citizens from the voter rolls.
IMPROVING VOTER ACCESS OR ELECTION ADMINISTRATION
Courts issue a series of opinions ensuring mail and early voters in Pennsylvania can vote and have their votes counted.
A Bucks County judge extended the deadline for voters in the county to apply in person for a mail ballot from Oct. 26 to Nov 1 after voters in line at the office’s closing time were turned away. In Erie County, a judge ordered officials to extend their operating hours and allow thousands of voters who did not receive their mail ballots to cancel their requests and receive new ballots immediately. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to block a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, which allows voters who make technical errors causing their mail ballots to be rejected to cast provisional ballots on Election Day that will be counted.
Nevada will count mail ballots missing postmarks.
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that election officials can accept otherwise valid mail ballots received with an illegible or missing postmark for up to three days after Election Day. The court determined that denying proper and timely ballots due to post office errors contradicts public policy. Nevada is among 18 states and D.C. that use postmarks to determine the timeliness of mail ballots.
Georgia courts issue rulings ensuring mail voters can return their ballots on time.
A Cobb County court ordered the county to extend the mail ballot receipt deadline by three days to accommodate voters affected by the late mailing of over 3,000 ballots. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is appealing the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. In Fulton County, a court rejected an RNC lawsuit seeking to block county officials from accepting hand-delivered ballots over the weekend.
Courts reject efforts to disenfranchise overseas voters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
In Pennsylvania, a U.S. District Court denied a request from several Republican representatives seeking to prevent UOCAVA voters from being exempt from certain verification requirements. A court of appeals in North Carolina rejected an RNC request to disenfranchise the adult children of North Carolinians living overseas. The RNC is appealing to the state supreme court.
ON THE BALLOT TOMORROW
Connecticut will decide whether to make all voters eligible to vote by mail.
Voters in Connecticut will consider whether to amend the state’s constitution to expand mail voting eligibility to all voters. Connecticut is one of only 14 states where only voters with specific qualifying excuses can vote by mail.
Nevada voters will decide on stricter voter ID requirements.
A ballot measure in Nevada proposes amending the state constitution to require all voters to present a valid photo ID when voting in person or provide an ID number when voting by mail. Current law does not generally require voter ID. This proposal must be approved by voters again in 2026 and acted upon by the legislature before it takes effect.
Voters consider ranked-choice voting and all-party primaries in several states.
Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada are considering initiatives to establish open primaries and ranked choice voting (RCV). Oregon and D.C. are also considering RCV, while Proposition 140 in Arizona would allow the legislature to enact RCV. Montana and South Dakota are considering establishing all-party “jungle” primaries, where the top vote-getters advance to the general election. Montana is also weighing a requirement that election winners receive over 50% of the vote, either through a runoff or RCV. Conversely, Alaska is considering abandoning the RCV system adopted in 2020, and a Missouri ballot measure would preemptively ban the system.
Several states consider ballot measures that expressly require U.S. citizenship to vote.
Voters in eight states – Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin – will decide on constitutional amendments specifying only U.S. citizens can vote at the state or local level. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and federal elections in every state.
This update is powered by VRL’s State Voting Rights Tracker: tracker.votingrightslab.org