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Friday 30 december 2022

New year expected to bring more changes to state voting laws

Continued from Front lawmakers continue to but it’s imperative that we
push for restrictions. give people doubting the
But experts have never The state is likely to draw results of our elections rea-
seen an explosion of leg- national attention next son to participate in them.”
islation like that which fol- year after Republicans indi- Voting rights advocates
lowed the 2020 presidential cated they might try again were outraged.
election, when more than to place on the May ballot “This legislation will make
3,600 election bills were in- a measure requiring a 60% voting unnecessarily hard-
troduced, according to the majority for any future con- er for seniors, students, ru-
Voting Rights Lab, which stitutional amendments to ral Ohioans, active-duty
tracks the legislation. pass. That provision could military and other eligible
Liz Avore, senior adviser to limit the ability of Ohio Ohioans,” said Jen Miller,
the group, said 22 states voters to rein in GOP ger- executive director of the
in the last couple of years rymandering or otherwise League of Women Voters
expanded access to the counter the majority-Re- Ohio.
ballot, 10 created new re- publican Legislature, such The office of Republican
strictions and five expand- Election worker Ramona Ortiz places a sign outside a polling as by codifying the right to Gov. Mike DeWine said he
station at Fire Station 3 on E. Rio Grande Ave in El Paso, Texas,
ed access in some ways just before polls open on Nov. 8, 2022. an abortion. was reviewing the legisla-
while creating new barriers Associated Press Republicans failed to mus- tion.
in others. This, she said, has ter enough votes during Democrats are readying
created a divide in the U.S. Another would assign a tion rates of mail ballots December’s lame-duck their own pushes, especial-
in which “your ZIP code de- group of peace officers to and ballot applications session to place the high- ly in two states where they
termines your access to our serve as election marshals due to widespread confu- er threshold for passing won control of the legisla-
democracy.” who investigate claims of sion on the identification amendments on the ballot, tures and retained the gov-
That divide seems likely to election-related missteps. numbers necessary. but they did pass a sweep- ernorship — Michigan and
grow next year. Legisla- That would follow the lead “It is certainly the case that ing election law overhaul. Minnesota. “There will need
tures won’t convene until of Florida, where officers Texas elections do not have The bill adds a photo ID to be quite a bit of imple-
January at the earliest, so in a special unit assigned widespread fraud,” Simp- requirement for voters and mentation legislation next
it’s unclear how many bills to elections have already son said. “These bills, these provides them for free, term, and I look forward to
are being drafted and on made a handful of arrests concerns that are raised, codifies a directive requir- working with the Legislature
which subjects. But Tex- — including of people who are solutions in search of a ing one ballot drop box and the governor’s office to
as, where the Legislature mistakenly thought they problem.” per county and eliminates enact this,” Ingham County
meets only once every two were eligible to vote un- The reliability of Texas’ early voting on the Mon- Clerk Barb Byrum, a Demo-
years and lawmakers can der a 2018 constitutional elections was underscored day before Election Day crat, said in an interview.
“pre-file” drafts of legisla- amendment restoring vot- by the release earlier this — county officials had said Jake Rollow, a spokesman
tion for the upcoming ses- ing rights to some felons. month of an audit by the it interfered with their final for the Michigan Depart-
sion, offers a preview. Critics have labeled the secretary of state’s office. preparations. The legisla- ment of State, said Secre-
The Associated Press has unit a political tool of the The 359-page audit of the tion also shrinks the window tary of State Jocelyn Ben-
identified nearly 100 elec- governor. 2020 election in the state’s for receiving mail-in ballots son will likely ask lawmak-
tion-related legislative pro- Matt Simpson, a senior at- two largest Democratic after the election from 10 ers to allocate $100 million
posals already filed in the torney at the American counties and two largest days to four. annually for local election
state, both to increase ac- Civil Liberties Union of Tex- Republican ones found Republican state Sen. The- offices and propose new
cess to the ballot box and as, said current election some “irregularities,” but resa Gavarone said tak- measures against circulat-
to further restrict it. This in- legislation proposed in the they were largely related to ing steps to tighten access ing election misinforma-
cludes one that would al- state, such as increasing holding an election during to the voting booth and tion. A Democratic state
low the state’s top lawyer criminal penalties for elec- a pandemic. speed vote counting are lawmaker also proposed
to assign a prosecutor fo- tion crimes and creating “In most cases, the audit aimed at improving the imposing penalties for peo-
cused on election crimes, election marshals, is “ex- found that the counties “perception, confidence ple who pressure election
testing the boundaries of a treme” and “very intimi- followed their procedures and integrity” in elections. workers, a key cause of
court ruling earlier this year dating” for voters. He said and clearly documented “Folks, perception matters,” Democrats in state legisla-
that said the attorney gen- these approaches are pri- their activities,” the audit Gavarone said. “Whether tures after conspiracy theo-
eral did not have the au- marily political and don’t says. you want to believe it or rists targeted voting officials
thority to prosecute elec- solve actual voting-related Ohio is another Republi- not, the goal should not just after the 2020 presidential
tion crimes. issues, such as high rejec- can-controlled state where be to secure our elections, election.q