Against a pandemic, Republican efforts and Donald Trump knocking access to voting?
Efforts to INCREASE voting access have made progress….
Two years after Republican-led states approved waves of new voting restrictions, more states in 2023 have improved access to voting than have limited it.
The big picture: 29 states and Washington, D.C., have enacted a total of 70 laws expanding voting rights this year, while 16 states have enacted 29 laws to restrict voting, according to data and analysis by the nonprofit Voting Rights Lab (VRL).
- 8 states included in those counts imposed batches of laws that did both.
Why it matters: The GOP’s backlash to many pandemic-era measures that improved access to voting has continued, but voting-rights advocates have struck back with some big wins in the run-up to the 2024 election.
- While most of the new laws the VRL identified as improving voting rights are in blue states, some Republican-led states have come to embrace some voting policies that the GOP, led by former President Trump, had cited in their false claims of election fraud in 2020.
- One example: Arkansas, a solidly red state, eased restrictions on early voting and mail-in voting.
Zoom in: Several of the most significant new laws and policies — enhancing and restricting voting procedures — are in politically divided swing states likely to be crucial in what’s expected to be a tight race for president in 2024….