Welcome to the December edition of The Lever, coming to your inbox a bit early this month as we prepare to wind down for the end of the year. In this month’s Hot Policy Take, we’re pleased to share a year in review of 2021 voting policy wins and losses.
We also have an important update to our mid-year report, A Tale of Two Democracies, with final counts of pro- and anti-voter bills – as well as the number of impacted voters – as we approach the close of 2022.
Finally, we couldn’t end the year without a 🧡 heart-felt thank you 🧡 to our incredible partners – each and every one of you! Let’s get right to it.
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In this month’s Hot Policy Take, we present VRL’s top five pro-voter achievements in 2021, along with some of the toughest setbacks our movement faced. While we all spent much of this year defending against attacks on the freedom to vote, we can’t forget that there is lots to celebrate, too.
Curious to learn what made the list? Read our Year in Review now.
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BY THE NUMBERS
96 Million Voters
More than 40% of eligible voters – 96 million people – live in states that improved their voting laws this year. While that represents an improvement for a significant swath of voters, 2021 also saw restrictive laws enacted for more than 23% of eligible voters – 55 million Americans. One in 5 voters, or 47 million people, are awaiting a final tally upon the conclusion of their state’s legislative session or special session.
In our December update of our report, A Tale of Two Democracies, our policy experts demonstrate how a wave of state legislation on voting rights and election administration is transforming our democracy, further cementing the fault line between states strengthening our democracy and those restricting it. The latest update reflects the passing of pro-voter legislation in our nation’s largest state, California.
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OUR PARTNERS
Instead of elevating one of the many amazing contributions our partners make to the voting rights space, this month, we wanted to pause to say: THANK YOU. To all of you!
We are endlessly grateful to our partners across the country for the incredible work that you do, day in and day out, to build a better, more inclusive democracy. We feel honored to work with you.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
The New York Times ran an article at the beginning of this month, which details the wave of voting legislation across the nation in 2021 and how these new laws will affect the 2022 elections.
“After passing 33 laws of voting limits in 19 states this year, Republicans in at least five states — Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire — have filed bills before the next legislative sessions have even started that seek to restrict voting in some way, including by limiting mail voting. In over 20 states, more than 245 similar bills put forward this year could be carried into 2022.”
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THE MARKUP
The Markup is VRL’s weekly update for insiders on state election legislation. Here’s a snippet from yesterday's edition of The Markup – a sample of what you can expect each week:
An increasing number of states are pre-filing bills to review 2020 election results. Over a year has passed since the 2020 election, and many states – including Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina – have pre-filed legislation to review the long-certified results. Most states already have a process to confirm election results, including risk-limiting and probabilistic audits, and the push for costly, standardless “audits,” often conducted by people with no expertise in election monitoring, only serves to undermine the integrity of our elections.
If you’d like to get insights like this straight to your inbox each Monday, head here to sign up. Note that the final edition of the year was sent on Monday, December 13, but The Markup will resume its weekly schedule in January.
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