Voting rights are under attack in state legislatures, and Federal action is needed.

Congress has the opportunity to pass two important bills that will safeguard the freedom to vote and protect underserved communities from further attacks:

• HR 1 / S1, The For The People Act
• The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act

On May 11, Gov. Ducey signed:

SB 1485, which will purge the highly-popular Permanent Early Vote List. Advocates estimate this could purge up to 125,000 voters—including 30,000 Latinx voters.

The Arizona Legislature is considering:

SB 1713, which would force Arizona voters to include personal information on their ballot envelopes, exposing them to unnecessary identity risk and making it harder for people to vote by mail. These new burdens will disproportionately jeopardize voters of color, Native voters, seniors voter, low-income voters, disabled voters, and military voters. Seniors are most likely to be among the 60,000+ registered voters who lack a driver’s license number on their voter registration; 1 in 5 people over 70 lacks a driver’s license. The bill does not appropriate funds to help these voters obtain the necessary identification.

SB 1106, which would create new ways to remove eligible voters from the rolls, including eliminating the requirement that counties take the necessary steps to contact the voter at the voter’s new residence when mail is returned as undeliverable. Instead, they would automatically be removed from the registration list. This bill also makes it a felony to forward a ballot to the voter, including family members forwarding ballots to students.

SB 1068, which will shift authority over elections from the Arizona Secretary of State (D) and the Governor (R) to the state legislature.

What’s in the Georgia voter suppression bill, SB 202?

The tremendous activism and push back made this bill less harmful than it was at the beginning, but this bill is largely focused on intimidation and election administration power, and it creates processes to disrupt local control and certification.

Wins:

• Early vote and weekend voting maintained in general election
• No fault absentee by mail preserved
• Automatic voter registration preserved
• Drop boxes preserved, but they must be inside, must be surveilled, only 1/100,000 voters
• Allows vote tabulation to begin in advance, third Monday before Election Day
• Signature match repealed

Suppressive new policies:

• Shortened absentee ballot request period
• Shortened absentee application return deadline
• Banned out of precinct voting except for 5-7pm on Election Day
• Additional ID requirements for voting by mail: required submission of a photocopy of ID for those without state ID/Driver’s License 
• Date of birth requirement on absentee ballots
• Outlaws private funding for elections administration
• Truncated runoff period
• Encouragement of mass voter challenge “caging”, with sanctions for counties in noncompliance
• Elections boards takeovers at the state and local level 
• Bans mobile voting except under limited emergency circumstances
• New restrictions on polling location hours extensions
• Giving water/snacks by hand to voters in line criminalized
• New misdemeanors related to voter privacy, third party apps

On May 7, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 90 into law. 

This law will:

• Cruelly restrict line warming;
• Dramatically limit access to drop boxes to only during early voting hours. In many counties, this is limited to eight hours a day and for just eight days in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Dropboxes must also be staffed by an election worker at all times. County election supervisors will be subject to a $25,000 fine if they do not adhere to the legislature’s strict rules, which will further disincentive election officials from making drop boxes widely available. 
• Require voters to renew their mail ballot application every election cycle, or two years. Previously, applications were valid for up to two election cycles, or four years;
• Impose burdensome ID requirements on voters requesting a mail ballot and prohibit Floridians from voting by mail if they do not have a driver’s license, state ID, or social security number.

The Michigan GOP has introduced a package of 39 voter suppression bills that would restrict our freedom to vote, including:

• SB 285, whichmakes it harder to vote using an absentee ballot by forcing you to show a specific type of photo ID in order to request an absentee ballot. If you are requesting a ballot by mail, you need a printer with color ink just to make a copy of your ID.
• SB 286, which removes your right to return your absentee ballot to a drop box after 5pm the day before Election Day.
• SB 287, which forces you to pay to return your absentee ballot by mail by banning clerks  from providing prepaid postage on return envelopes.
• SB 297, which creates unnecessary red tape that makes it harder for clerks to conduct their work by creating a partisan board to review and approve who the clerks hire to help them.
• SB 303, which forces voters to carry a specific type of ID to vote in person. If a voter cannot provide that ID, they are forced to cast a provisional ballot.
• SB 304, which places extreme burdens on voters who cast a provisional ballot.
• SB 305, which would prohibit government officials from using “name or likeness” of an elected or appointed official from being used on any materials or communication related to voting or elections that was paid for with public money. It could fine clerks and the Secretary of State’s office for providing election information through social media.
• SB 310, which bans the Secretary of State from sending absentee ballot applications to all voters or from providing a link to the online application on the Secretary’s website.

Thanks to your advocacy, HB 429 — which would have revoked college IDs as a valid form of identification at the polls in addition to requiring that colleges offer in-state tuition to students who vote in NH — was defeated. It’s a great start, and we could use your help to defeat the following bills:

• SB 54, which would require voters to provide their driver’s license number or non-driver ID number and the last four digits of their SSN with their absentee ballot applications.
• HB 292, which establishes new ID requirements for voters requesting mail ballots; if the ballot is being sent to any address different from the one the voter has on file, they will be required to provide additional identification documentation—either a copy of a photo ID that meets state requirements, or a notarized signature on the mail ballot application.
• HB 523, which requires any same-day Election Day registrants who do not have a photo ID to have their photos taken at their polling place. HB 523 also would eliminate previous religious exemptions for some voters who were not required to show photo ID when registering.

The following bills, which were retained in committee, will be picked up this summer:  

• HB 86, which would eliminate same-day voter registration and effectively ban out-of-state college students from voting by requiring students who wish to vote in NH to prove they receive in-state tuition.
• HB 531, which would introduce unconstitutional provisional ballots and target new Americans by requiring extensive citizenship documentation at the polls.
• HB 554, which similarly tries to intimidate young people by introducing confusing residency requirements.

The North Carolina State Legislature is considering SB 326, which will:

• Directly assault North Carolinians’ freedom to vote by mail. It requires all absentee ballots to be received by elections officials by 5pm on Election Day, regardless of when the voter mailed the ballot. Right now, existing law allows ballots to be counted that are postmarked by Election Day and received no later than three days after Election Day;
• Move the absentee ballot request window from 1 week before Election Day to 2 weeks before Election Day. Existing law sets the deadline at the Tuesday immediately before Election Day; and
• Strip funding from local election administrators creating financial challenges that will impact already under-resourced communities, specifically — Black, brown, and indigenous populations, older adults in residential living facilities, and disabled voters. NC’s counties will have to bear the financial burden alone to pick up the tab. This would mean that programs such as North Carolina’s Multipartisan Assistance Teams, which help seniors in congregate living facilities submit their absentee ballot securely, would be jeopardized.

The Texas State Legislature is aggressively advancing several voter suppression bills. The biggest attack on the freedom to vote is in Senate Bill 7 The legislature has held multiple votes in the early morning hours to change Texas voting laws. As passed by the House on May 7, SB 7 would:

• threaten election officials with criminal prosecution for enacting procedures to increase voter freedom, including a ban on sending unsolicited vote by mail applications to voters;
• threaten advocacy groups and individuals with felony prosecution for providing needed assistance to voters at polling locations and with mail ballots;
• limit the ability of election judges to remove disruptive partisan poll watchers;
• allow partisan poll watchers to take election officials to court over perceived obstruction; and 
• strictly limit the type of assistance a person may provide a voter when casting their ballot.

Texas Republicans are also advancing standalone anti-voter bills. The below have passed one chamber and one committee in the second chamber:

• SB 1509 requires voters to provide a Texas driver’s license/state ID number when applying for and returning a mail ballot. Voters who do not have a driver’s license or state ID must provide the last four digits of their Social Security number when applying for and returning a mail ballot.
• HB 574 creates a second degree felony for knowingly or intentionally making any effort to count votes the person knows are invalid or alter a report to include votes the person knows are invalid or refuse to count valid votes or alter a report to exclude valid votes.
• SB 155 requires the Secretary of State to review quarterly information received about persons excused from jury duty because they are not residents of the county in which they are registered to vote. The Secretary of State would refer information to local prosecuting attorneys or the Attorney General for investigation of whether the voter committed an election offense.

Statement from Texas Civil Rights Project President, Mimi Marziani:

“Rather than attend to the needs of Texans the people leading this state are seeking to distract us with bills manufactured by Trump allies. Lawmakers are filing complex bills they don’t even understand, without inviting safe virtual testimony from the groups most affected by future suppression. These bills echo conspiracy theories that stoked voter intimidation and violence on a national level this past year.”