Blog Post- Ongoing Restrictions to American’s Right to Vote

The 2020 Presidential Election began the dangerous lie that the American election process was corrupted, a lie perpetuated by Donald Trump and his supporters. With that lie still out in the world and widely believed in certain states, the midterms are going to be about more than just which candidates you want, but also if you can make it to vote. With the upcoming midterms, many Americans want to forget the conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election, but like a ghost, they continue to haunt us.

While that may seem like an exaggeration and hyperbole, it is not. Twenty states have at least one restrictive voting provision on the books for the midterm elections, which may affect citizens’ right to vote this November. Out of these 20 states, 2020 battleground states like Georgie, Arizona, and Florida have a lot of new restrictions that could trip up voters.

In Georgia, laws previously in place as well as newly implemented look to restrict access to voting for many people, especially people of color. Drop boxes for ballots have been both reduced and had the times to drop off limited as well, mostly in larger counties that utilize drop boxes the most. Now that drop box hours have been curtailed, a stark contrast to the 2020 election where they were accessible until voting ended, many people will have to find a new way to get their vote counted. That could prove a continued issue since the state also requires an ID to be shown in order to vote in person. While having an ID to vote seems like a sensible thing to have in place, in practice it restricts many Americans’ access to voting since approximately 11% of U.S. Citizens don’t have an ID, which estimates about 21 million people.  

Arizona and Florida also implemented new laws that can discourage or prevent people from voting in future elections. In Arizona, same-day registration is no longer allowed and anyone that registers a person and allows them to vote in that election can also be charged with a felony. While Florida, unlike Georgia and Arizona in 2020, went to Republicans the state has also implemented voter restrictions that will affect the upcoming midterms. Along with creating an office to investigate voter fraud in Florida, Florida’s SB 524 bill also no longer allows what the bill calls “ballot harvesting.” This is where a person takes a signed and sealed ballot from people and drops them off at the drop box for that person. Arizona and Florida, like Georgia, also have requirements about presenting identification of some kind when attempting to vote. While some could say that these new laws are just to keep the integrity or validity of elections, most of these laws mention the 2020 election and its supposed shortcomings. One such bill is the Georgia SB 202, where most of the new Georgia voter restrictions are enacted, states, “The changes made in this legislation in 2021 are designed to address the lack of elector confidence in the election system on all sides of the political spectrum.” What lack of confidence? The lack of confidence was created by the party that lost  a free and fair election. Since some people had issues with it, namely Republicans that supported Donald Trump, Americans now have more hoops to jump through to be a part of democracy. The political system in the US is built upon each American having the right to vote, and while measures to protect the integrity of that system are necessary these laws only serve to prevent individuals from using their rights to elect officials.