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Welcome to the February edition of The Lever — reaching you as state lawmakers start to act on legislation that will be highly consequential for the 2024 election and beyond. Our democracy is strongest when our elections are free from partisan interference.
This month’s Hot Policy Take details the emergence of state legislation requiring the hand counting of all ballots. These proposals would be far more expensive, result in significant delays, and, most concerningly, lead to high error rates in vote counts and lower voter confidence in elections.
In this email, we visit the inaugural use of early in-person voting in Michigan’s primary election. We also shine a light into New Hampshire Voter Integrity, a closed group of nearly 7,000 election deniers on Facebook as investigated by WIRED.
Later in this issue, we spotlight Chase Bearden, the new executive director of the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. We also offer a a brief digest of active election legislation we’re watching across the states.
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Today’s election administrators face unprecedented scrutiny when it comes to delivering accurate and fast election results. In recent years, partisan actors have weaponized delays in election results in tight races to promulgate election disinformation and sow distrust in the democratic process. Now a troubling trend has emerged: efforts by these same actors to force expensive, error-prone ballot hand counts.
In this month’s Hot Policy Take, we take a look at the growing push among lawmakers in some states to ban electronic tabulation machines and force hand counting of ballots. |
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BY THE NUMBERS
78,000
That’s how many Michigan voters cast their ballot early in-person ahead of today's presidential primary Election Day. This year is the first time Michigan voters will have at least nine days of early in-person voting for both the primary and general election. Early in-person voting was a major component of the 2022 voter-approved 'Promote the Vote' constitutional amendment, which made a number of improvements to Michigan’s elections.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
WIRED recently published an article spotlighting New Hampshire Voter Integrity, a closed group of nearly 7,000 election conspiracy theorists on Facebook where election fraud disinformation flourishes. The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights found that the group contains at least 37 state and local officials.
“Watching the local and national news I saw people casually sliding multiple ballots into the ballot machine,” one member claimed. “No one seemed concerned.” Once again, no evidence was provided to back this up, but commenters on the post appeared to believe it anyway.
The same kind of conspiratorial conversations and theories cultivated in the group during the state’s recent primary elections are likely to grow exponentially as we approach the 2024 presidential election – and not just in New Hampshire.
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FROM OUR PARTNERS - Coalition of Texans with Disabilities
The Coalition of Texans with Disabilities (CTD) is the oldest and largest cross-disability advocacy organization in Texas. They have led the way in expanding accessibility to the ballot box for Texans with disabilities for years.
Recently, CTD announced the retirement of their executive director, Dennis Borel, who helmed the organization over a successful 24-year tenure. His successor is Chase Bearden, a long-time staff member of CTD and a leader of the movement for disability justice in Texas. Congratulations, Chase!
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THE MARKUP
The Markup is VRL’s weekly legislative update for voting rights insiders. If you’d like to get insights straight to your inbox each Monday, head here to sign up.
Here’s a brief update on what we’re watching this week, and a sneak peek into what you can expect from The Markup each week:
Mississippi Senators introduce a bill that would establish in-person early voting, while the House passes legislation to make county election administrator roles non-partisan. State Senators in Mississippi introduced S.B. 2580, a bill that would give all voters the option of voting early in person for the first time, while moving some mail voting deadlines earlier. Mississippi is one of only four states – newly including Delaware as a result of a judicial ruling this week – that does not offer in-person early voting. Additionally, the Mississippi House passed a bill that would make the role of county election commissioner a non-partisan office and prohibit candidates for the position from campaigning based on party affiliation. That bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Arizona, Kentucky, Hawaii, and Virginia consider ERIC membership. Four states saw bills related to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) pass at least one legislative chamber last week. The upper chambers in Virginia (S.B. 606) and Hawaii (S.B. 2240) passed bills that would require the states to join the consortium. Meanwhile, the Kentucky House (H.B. 44) and Arizona House (H.B. 2852) passed bills that would require those states to leave ERIC. ERIC has faced a tumultuous year in which multiple states, including Virginia, departed ERIC and struggled to replicate its benefits. The Virginia bill now goes to Governor Glenn Youngkin to sign or veto, while the Arizona, Kentucky, and Hawaii bills will go to the second legislative chamber for consideration.
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