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 Latino voters.

But thanks to your calls to the legislature, SB 1713 was defeated in a bipartisan vote on May 26!

SB 1713 would have forced Arizona voters to include personal information on their ballot envelopes, exposing them to unnecessary risk of identity theft and making it harder for people to vote by mail. These new burdens will disproportionately jeopardize voters of color, Native voters, senior voters, 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 required identification.

There’s still work to do! The Arizona legislature is still considering:

SB 1241, which would refer all mail ballots rejected for signature problems to the Attorney General for possible prosecution. This is a disproportionate intimidation tactic that targets elderly, disabled, younger voters and voters of color—all of whom are the most likely to have their signatures rejected at higher rates. 

SB 1106, which would create new ways to remove eligible voters from the rolls–including eliminating the requirement that counties take steps to contact the voter at their 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.

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• Signature match repealed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
• Ban on 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
• Shortened 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 and snacks by hand to voters in line criminalized
• New misdemeanors related to voter privacy, third party ballot applications

On May 7, Governor 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 Michiganders’ freedom to vote, including:

• SB 285, which makes it harder to vote using a mail-in ballot by forcing voters to show a specific type of photo ID in order to request an absentee ballot. If a voter requests a ballot by mail, they must have a printer with color ink just to make a copy of their ID.
• SB 286, which removes the right to return an absentee ballot to a drop box after 5pm on the day before Election Day–three hours before polls close.
• SB 287, which forces voters to pay to return their mail ballot by banning clerks from providing prepaid postage on return envelopes.
• SB 296, which expands the number of members in the board of canvassers in counties with a population of 200,000 or more. Each party would have an equal number of canvassers, but five members would need to vote to certify elections in a six-member board and six members would need to do so on an eight-person board. Clerks and critics said the bill would disproportionately impact Democratic-leaning counties and make it easier for Republicans to block certification.
• SB 297, which creates unnecessary red tape that makes it harder for clerks to conduct their work, by requiring the county clerk to receive the approval of the board of canvassers for each assistant the clerks hire to help perform election-related duties.
• SB 303, which forces voters to carry a specific type of ID to vote in person and eliminates the ability of in-person voters to sign an affidavit in lieu of providing an acceptable voter ID to cast a regular ballot. 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 310, which bans the Secretary of State from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who did not first request one. It also prohibits the Secretary from providing a direct link to the online application on the Secretary’s website.

Other anti-voter bills include:

• HB 4132, which creates new felonies for persons who knowingly fill out and submit an mail ballot application containing another person’s name or identifying information.
• HB 4133, would amend the code of criminal procedures to classify the violations in HB 4132 as Class E felonies, punishable by a statutory maximum of five years’ imprisonment.

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, and many other bills were retained for later consideration. It’s now all hands on deck to defeat this anti-voter bill:

• SB 89, which would create a confusing and duplicitous election system for federal and state/local elections, in retaliation against the possible passage of the For The People Act.

The following bills, which were retained in committee, could be picked up at a later date: 

• 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.
• 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 Ohio Legislature is considering an omnibus voting bill, HB 294, which would: 

• Explicitly prohibit drop boxes in locations other than the county board of elections office; the office would only be allowed to provide a maximum of three drop boxes during the 10 days immediately before Election Day 
• Eliminate Monday early voting, one of the busiest final days of early voting. 
• Cut off mail ballot requests from 3 days before the election to10 days before the election. In 2020, some 451,863 Ohio voters requested a ballot during the final week that HB 294 would eliminate. In that time, 90%, 413,093 voters requested and returned their ballots.
• If a mail ballot is not inside TWO envelopes— the inner envelope and the outer return envelope—the ballot would be rejected. Ohio Republicans are trying the same anti-voter tactic Pennsylvania Republicans did, to reject more ballots.
• Prohibit any public official from providing prepaid return postage for mail ballot applications or return envelopes.

For more, go to https://ohioantivoterbill.com/

Your advocacy is working! State senators in North Carolina have had to postpone bringing a wide-ranging anti-voter bill forward known as SB 326. But rather than work to protect voting rights, anti-voter legislators have broken up the bill into three parts to restrict our freedom to vote:

• SB 326: Changes deadline for returning a mail ballot to 5pm on Election Day
• SB 724: Commits taxpayer dollars to enforce state’s voter ID law and will mess up state’s new online voter registration platform
• SB 725: Bans private funding for elections

Additional bills the Legislature is considering include:

HB 766, which will make soliciting/accepting private money for election administration a Class I felony.

HB 782, which will:

• Require all mail ballots returned by 5pm on Election Day and would require counties to throw away all absentee ballots received after 5pm, potentially denying tens of thousands of North Carolinians — including seniors and veterans — the opportunity to have their vote counted. State law currently includes a three day grace period to allow domestic ballots mailed on or before Election Day to be delivered and counted by election officials;
• Add 3 days to the beginning of the vote-by-mail timeline — a false voter protection — because it requires voters to make their candidate picks earlier than in-person voters. It would force working families, homebound older adults, and those with disabilities, to vote up to 10 days earlier than those who vote in person.

HB 606, which requires that General Assembly leaders give permission for any litigation against state laws written by the legislature. This bill is in response to last year’s settlement that extended the deadline for local election boards to receive mail ballots.

You did it! Your calls, social media posts, and community organizing stopped the unified Republican government from passing one of the worst anti-voter bills proposed in the Texas State Legislature. House Democrats courageously walked out, blocking SB 7, which would have threatened voters’ freedom to cast a ballot, criminalized pro-voter policies  that our brave election officials utilized in 2020 to help voters vote safely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and caved to conspiracy theorists by making it easier to overturn an election.

Governor Abbott has promised to call a special session where the legislature will reconsider anti-voter bills. And we are ready to win again!

While SB 7 was defeated, several standalone bills that share provisions from version of SB 7 are eligible for enactment by the Governor.

• HB 574, would create a second degree felony for knowingly counting invalid votes or not counting valid votes. 
• HB 2283, would limit the ability of local election officials to accept private donations. Cash donations less than $1000 would need to be approved by the governing body of the relevant political subdivision. Cash donations of $1000 or more would need to be approved by the Secretary of State. 
• HB 3920, would require a voter to affirm a disability that meets the statutory definition on the mail ballot application.
• SB 1111, would require a voter who receives an address confirmation notice for an address that is a commercial PO or otherwise does not correspond to a residential address to provide documentation of their residence when returning the notice.
• SB 1113, would allow the Secretary of State to withhold funds from any registrar who fails to perform statutory list maintenance duties.

Statement from Texas Civil Rights Project President, Mimi Marziani:

“Late Sunday night — the evening before the final day of the Texas Legislative Session — Republicans attempted to rush a final vote on SB 7 after days of closed-door dealings. Democrats in the legislature ultimately broke quorum by leaving the Capital and convening at a nearby church — killing the bill just before the midnight deadline. While we applaud the courage of Texas Democrats, this extraordinary victory did not happen on its own. It was the culmination of months of on-the-ground organizing — including by TCRP and our allies at Texas Freedom Network, MOVE Texas, Texas Organizing Project, Texas Right to Vote, Black Voters Matter and more — which led to a groundswell of opposition against SB 7, including business executives, faith leaders, community organizers, local elected officials and thousands and thousands of everyday Texans.

Now, in the full light of day, authors of the bill are struggling to defend its racist provisions — going so far as to claim (for the first time) that massive changes were typos, like the last-minute addition to the bill which banned voting on Sundays before 1 PM. We know the truth: That provision was a transparent effort to undermine “souls to the polls,” a tradition in the Black community in which voters are encouraged to cast their ballot after attending church service.

The fight, however, is not over. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) immediately said the legislation would be added to a special session of the legislature. It’s unclear right now when such a session will occur, but when it does, we’ll be ready.”