The media headlines have been blazing about voter suppression efforts….
Those efforts have been in mostly Republican controlled states…
But in other states (even some Republican states folks)?
There is a just a strong effort to expand voting access….
One could thank the pandemic for the OVERALL movement to increase voting access for Americans…
Some states restored voting rights to people with past felony convictions or expanded options for voters with disabilities, both long-standing priorities among advocates. And in Virginia, a new law requires localities to receive preapproval or feedback on voting changes as a shield against racial discrimination, a first for states after the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the federal Voting Rights Act in 2013….
….
Seventy-one new laws easing voting rules are poised to benefit 63 million eligible voters across 28 states, or about one-quarter of the U.S. voting population, according to the Voting Rights Lab report, which tracked policy changes as of June 13.
Thirty-one new laws in 18 states create more barriers to the ballot box, affecting 36 million eligible voters, or 15 percent of the voting population, the report stated.
Legislative debates over restrictions are ongoing in key states such as Texas and Pennsylvania, leaving open the possibility that new limitations affecting millions more voters will still be enacted before the end of the year….
…
Before 2020, only five states automatically sent mail ballots to all voters, a figure that jumped to nine — plus the District of Columbia — for November’s general election. Roughly three dozen states offered no-excuse absentee voting or proactively mailed absentee ballot applications to voters, leading to a spike in the number of Americans who cast ballots by mail.
Under laws passed this year, Vermont and Nevada will mail ballots to active voters for general elections and all elections, respectively.Maryland has created a permanent absentee voter list, which allows voters to sign up to receive mail ballots for every election, and Connecticut and New York are moving toward amending their state constitutions to allow voters to cast mail ballots without an excuse.
So far, nearly two dozen states have taken steps to improve the process of mail voting — agreeing to pay for return postage for ballots, expand the use of drop boxes or give election administrators more time to process returned mail ballots before Election Day, for example….
…
Election officials have repeatedly pointed to November’s record voter turnout as evidence that the pandemic-era rules should remain in place. More than 159 million people voted, the highest turnout in a century….
All the running around by people with their hair on fire about Democracy being in danger is just ridiculous ….
Americans have protected the union for centuries and one knucklehead President and his followers are NOT gonna stop this Great Country from surviving as a free Democracy….
Media or hype or NOT….
Just as the November election showed….
America IS and always HAS BEEN Great because of its People….