As some states restrict voting rights, others expand them. The fight for the future of elections is on.
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2021 was a bad year for voting rights. Now state legislatures have returned for their sessions. What will 2022 bring? Early returns are not encouraging.
Today, the Brennan Center published our Voting Laws Roundup
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, which catalogs legislative assaults on voting rights around the country. As of January 14, legislators in 27 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 250 bills with restrictive provisions, compared to 75 such bills in 24 states a year ago. That’s a tripling of proposals to restrict the vote. The bills would reduce access to mail ballots, limit or eliminate same-day voter registration, require proof of citizenship to vote or register, or make it harder for people with disabilities to vote.
Equally worrying, lawmakers also aim to increase partisan interference in election administration. Legislators in 13 states have pre-filed or introduced 41 such bills. Some would give the state legislature the ultimate power to reject election results. Others threaten election officials with civil or criminal penalties or place partisan actors in charge of vote counting.
It can be easy to lose sight of another trend, this one positive: In some states, lawmakers are seeking to widen access to the vote. Officials in at least 32 states have introduced, pre-filed, or carried over 399 bills that expand voting access, compared to 286 such bills in 30 states a year ago. In some states, bad bills and good bills jostle for support.
For decades, voting rights have been a national goal, their protection a national obligation. Now the Voting Rights Act is gutted by the Supreme Court, Congress cannot pass vital legislation, and the Big Lie has taken hold. Some states are moving backwards, even as other states aim to build a modern and inclusive democracy.
If we do not want to find ourselves a house divided, we must renew the drive to make our democracy a national mission again.
Democracy
Gerrymandering Hits the Empire State
The New York State Legislature recently approved a congressional map that is expected to halve the number of Republicans the state sends to the House. This has prompted outrage from Republicans and concern of a race to the bottom from good-governance groups. “It’s a master class in how to draw an effective gerrymander,” Michael Li said. “Sometimes you do need fancy metrics to tell, but a map that gives Democrats 85 percent of the seats in a state that is not 85 percent Democratic — this is not a particularly hard case.” NEW YORK TIMES
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Constitution
Understanding Government Social Media Analysis
Several agencies within the federal government, most notably the FBI, State Department, and Department of Homeland Security, have taken to collecting social media posts to conduct surveillance for purposes ranging from law enforcement to travel screening. A new Brennan Center explainer lays out how and why these agencies do this, as well as the harms incurred by this type of activity. “Broad threat detection on social media, disconnected from any specific suspicion of wrongdoing, generates reams of useless information, which can unproductively crowd out information on real public safety concerns.” Read more
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Justice
Towards Redemptive Justice
Conversations around mass incarceration often highlight the scale of the problem rather than the profound impact of these policies on individuals and families. The latest essay in our Punitive Excess series
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is by Carlton Miller of Arnold Ventures, whose brother served over two decades in prison after being convicted by a nonunanimous jury in Louisiana. Miller writes about the racist origins of this system, the fight to reform it, and more broadly about the need for chances at redemption in the criminal justice system. Read more
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Fear of Reform in Manhattan
Despite having been in office for just over a month, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has already faced harsh criticism for his policies, which aim to advance fairness and public safety together. Critics clamoring for excessive prosecution miss Bragg’s point, argue Lauren-Brooke Eisen and Derek Perkinson: “Our city is worse off when we over-punish, period. And the district attorney’s policy is rooted in decades of research and successful decarceration reforms around the nation.” CITY & STATE NY
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Coming Up
VIRTUAL EVENT: Social Media’s Free Speech Problem
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Thursday, March 24, 6–7 p.m. ET
The problem of misinformation on social media has ballooned over the last few years, especially in relation to elections. The result has been further polarization of our already divided country. How do we control this false speech while protecting the First Amendment — and our democracy? Join us for a live discussion with Richard L. Hasen, leading expert on election law and author of the upcoming book Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics — and How to Cure It
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The discussion will explore how social media companies can solve this problem without shutting down the essential free flow of ideas and opinions. RSVP today
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Want to keep up with Brennan Center Live events? Subscribe to the events newsletter.
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News
Alicia Bannon on the Supreme Court’s crisis of public confidence // WASHINGTON POST
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Douglas Keith on the importance of judicial diversity // CNN
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Chisun Lee on New York’s new Public Finance Campaign Board // GOTHAMIST
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Michael Li on state supreme courts and redistricting // THE HILL
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Sean Morales-Doyle on restoring voting rights to the formerly incarcerated // POLITICO
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Yurij Rudensky on partisan gerrymandering in Georgia // REUTERS
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