ANALYSIS
2021 Year in Review for Voting Rights: A Look Back at Voting Legislation in the States
Much of the attention over the 2021 and in the early weeks of 2022 has been on the failure of federal legislation to secure voting rights. But, as always, much of the movement has taken place at the state level. State legislatures proposed nearly three thousand bills...
The Year in Review for Voting Rights: Five Achievements and Five Setbacks
2021 has been a historic year for voting rights policy. We tracked nearly 3,000 bills moving in all 50 states and D.C. this year, resulting in almost 300 new laws – both pro- and anti-voter. While voting rights advocates spent much of 2021 defending against attacks on...
DECEMBER UPDATE: A Tale of Two Democracies
The Voting Rights Lab made critical updates to its report, A Tale of Two Democracies, first released in June and updated in September, demonstrating how a wave of state legislation on voting rights and election administration is transforming our democracy, creating a...
Three Takeaways from the 2021 Elections
This year, expanded voter access in Virginia resulted in record turnout for an off-cycle election. Both Democrats and Republicans turned out in higher numbers than in 2017, the last gubernatorial election year, and a Republican victory refutes the claim that expanded...
Movement Victories: Stopping the Bad and Highlighting the Good
As we wrap up the 2021 legislative sessions in most states, let’s take stock of our movement’s victories. Voting rights advocates and organizers successfully ensured that some of the most restrictive policies failed. They also moved forward reforms across the country...
A Threat to Our Democracy: Election Subversion in the 2021 Legislative Session
2021 has been a historic year for voting rights, with some discouraging setbacks occurring in state legislatures across the country. From Texas to Florida to Georgia, millions of voters have watched as state lawmakers around the country erect new and unnecessary...
Where the Rubber Meets the Road: How Virginia and New Jersey Are Putting Recent Voting Law Changes into Effect
State legislatures have been working overtime to pass voting laws this year, with 2,661 bills introduced and 226 bills in 45 states enacted so far. Most states won’t hold statewide elections until 2022, and we’ll be eagerly watching to see how these new laws shape...
The Freedom to Vote Act: National Context
Among its provisions, the Freedom to Vote Act would create nationwide standards for early voting, mail voting, voting restoration, voter identification, and voter registration. Below is a summary of how each of these provisions would change existing state law across...
The Potential Impact of H.R. 4
On August 24, the House passed H.R. 4, also known as the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This federal legislation would require states and jurisdictions to obtain certification, or “preclearance” before making changes to election procedures in...
Party First: How State Legislatures Are Injecting Partisanship Into Our Elections
This year, we’ve spotted a new trend taking hold at the state level with many states introducing bills that give partisan actors more power to shape and control election outcomes. The most extreme legislation would move the power to choose the president from the...
The Markup
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