Following the 2020 election, an onslaught of election-related legislation has pulled the nation in two directions, with some states working to expand ballot access and others passing legislation to restrict it. Mail votingl epitomizes this divergence. Voters will find...
Nationwide
The Markup: Weekly Election Legislation Update for Monday, August 8
Welcome to our latest edition of The Markup. This past Saturday, August 6, marked the 57th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. As we reflect on this landmark legislation – where we’ve come since its passage as well as the state of our democracy today – we are more...
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...
On a Federal Voter ID Law, the Devil is in the Details
In proposing a compromise package for federal voting legislation, Senator Joe Manchin recently released a framework that includes two weeks of early voting, automatic voter registration, a ban on partisan gerrymandering, and a first-ever national voter ID law among...
Voting Restoration: A Spark of Hope in State Election Legislation
In the next week, Washington Governor Jay Inslee is expected to sign H.B. 1078/S.B. 5086 into law. This bill restores the right to vote to tens of thousands of Washingtonians with past felony convictions once they return home from prison. Once it becomes law, more...
The For the People Act
Download our brief on H.R.1/S.1 here. H.R.1/S.1 protects our freedom to vote Better in-person voting On Election Day for the 2020 general election, around 30% of likely voters took at least 30 minutes to vote. About 15% (more than 8 million voters) took an hour or...
The Quiet Attack on Drop Boxes: Another Tactic to Make it Harder to Vote
As those in the voting rights movement are well aware, states across the country rushed to adjust their election systems to allow for safe voting during the 2020 pandemic, in part by expanding access to absentee ballots. The Voting Rights Lab policy team tracked these...
The 2020 Backlash Begins: Early Trends in Photo ID Requirements for Absentee Voting
Record-breaking turnout in 2020, along with rampant misinformation spread after the election in an attempt to cast doubt on the results, has provoked some legislators into proposing new voter suppression methods. My team and I have been scouring pre-filed and recently...
COVID-19 and States of Emergency
The resources below detail the steps taken by state and local officials to prepare for the 2020 elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. State and Local Response Database Throughout 2020, we tracked state and local responses to the pandemic – a mix of executive orders,...
Protecting Against Polling Place Consolidation and Poll Worker Shortages
Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, we have seen a variety of election related disasters during the primary elections – from massive polling place closures resulting in long lines to poll worker shortages and absentee ballots not arriving on time. As we approach the final two months before the presidential general election, election officials across the country are frantically scrambling to finalize their in-person polling locations.