Welcome to July’s The Lever. Earlier this month, we released a new report, The State of State Election Law: 2022 Mid-Year Review. This edition of The Lever highlights some of our most pressing findings.
Since 2020, nearly every state in the country has made some change to their election laws. Now, halfway through 2022 and with midterm elections underway, election administrators and voters alike find themselves navigating some complex changes to the voting process. As we saw in the Texas primaries earlier this year, effective implementation can be the difference between a voter’s ballot being counted or tossed out. We review what implementation issues to watch for in the upcoming August primaries in our latest Hot Policy Take, “Implementation Repercussions: August Primaries and the Impact of New Election Laws.”
Our report also revealed a disturbing fact: bills interfering with fair, nonpartisan administration of our elections are on the rise in states around the country this year. These alarming bills include provisions that strip experienced election professionals of their authority and hand that power to state legislatures or other partisan players; threaten election officials with felonies; and more. Lastly, we’re giving a shoutout to We the Veterans, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which recently launched a program to recruit veterans to be poll workers. Let’s dive right in.
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New laws that restrict access carry serious consequences – unnecessary burdens and barriers at the ballot box prevent voters from participating in our democracy. Beyond the policy impact of any given legislation, it’s also critical that states take time to get the implementation of any new election policy right. Effective implementation can be the difference between a voter’s ballot being counted or tossed out.
The Texas primaries earlier this year served as a prime example of the repercussions of poor election law implementation. Ultimately, those who suffer from burdensome and carelessly-implemented election policies are often those already historically disenfranchised, such as Black and brown voters, low-income voters, and voters with disabilities. This month’s Hot Policy Take takes a look at what happened in Texas, and names some potential implementation issues to monitor in the upcoming August primaries in Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida.
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BY THE NUMBERS
27 laws
While fewer bills impacting voter access have been enacted this session compared to last year, the number of bills interfering with the fair, nonpartisan administration of elections is picking up steam. As of Monday, July 25 – and only halfway through the year – 19 states have enacted 27 new election interference laws, outpacing the total number of these bills passed in 2021.
These bills take a variety of forms. Some laws enacted this year include provisions to escalate the investigation and prosecution of purported election crimes; subject voters, voter assistants, and election officials to increased criminal penalties; increase partisanship in the appointment of election officials; or even limit the power of state or local officials to adjust election rules in an emergency.
We must remain vigilant when it comes to lawmakers exploiting a historic distrust in our elections to change the rules for political gain, compromising our country’s most fundamental ideals to increase their own power. You can track the growing trend of election interference in real time with this legislative snapshot in our State Voting Rights Tracker.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
Secretary of state races have drawn considerable attention in 2022 – for good reason. A number of candidates all across the country have actively advanced conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, or otherwise made baseless claims about widespread voting issues.
But when it comes to law enforcement's engagement with U.S. elections – and in many cases, polling places themselves – a new story from Reuters about a growing cadre of conspiracy-driven candidates for sheriff caught our attention.
"The constitutional sheriffs’ association promotes an extreme view of sheriffs’ legal authority, asserting on its website that their power in their jurisdictions exceeds that of any other official and ‘even supersedes the powers of the President.’
"It’s rare for sheriffs to investigate voting irregularities, especially without a request from election officials. They generally handle criminal law enforcement in jurisdictions that lack a police force and manage local jails, among other duties."
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FROM OUR PARTNERS
Poll workers make our elections possible at the local level. Without enough poll workers, polling places can close, making it harder to vote in some communities. But in the face of COVID-19 and recent, unfair attacks from politicians who are seeking to manipulate election administration for their own benefit, poll worker volunteers have become increasingly hard to find. To fill this gap with civic-minded people willing to serve to strengthen our democracy, a group of veterans is organizing to continue their service by becoming poll workers.
We the Veterans, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded by veterans and military family members, recently launched a program called “Vet the Vote” to recruit veterans to be poll workers. Vet the Vote volunteers like Kristen Berg in Wisconsin are stepping up to increase positive civic engagement. An Air Force veteran, Berg mentioned how helping to run her local election showed the strengths of her community:
"I was working in my community, so I knew a lot of the faces coming in. It was fun for me to be part of a day when people are coming in to express their opinion on something. People are excited."
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THE MARKUP
The Markup is VRL’s weekly legislative update for voting rights insiders. Here’s a snippet from yesterday’s edition – a sample of what you can expect each week:
Wisconsin’s legislature rejects Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) efforts to count valid ballots with minor omissions, while voters with disabilities sue to ensure access to voting assistance. Wisconsin voters are at risk of having their mail ballots rejected over minor omissions, such as a missing zip code for their ballot’s witness. Wisconsin is one of a small number of states that requires voters to fill out their mail ballots in front of a witness, who must then write their signature and address on the certificate envelope. In accordance with guidance issued by the WEC in 2016, election officials may fill in missing witness address information in certain circumstances. In response to a lawsuit seeking to invalidate that policy, the WEC codified that guidance as a rule and filed it with the Legislature’s committee that reviews administrative rules. The committee then rejected the rule.
A recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision invalidating drop boxes seems to assert that voters – including those with disabilities – cannot be assisted in returning their completed ballot to a municipal clerk. On Friday, voters with disabilities sued to ensure they could exercise their federal rights (which entitle them to assistance in voting) in the upcoming primary and thereafter. Voters have recently won similar litigation in North Carolina.
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