Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The state of voting: July 5, 2022

State of voting - election law changes

This weekly update summarizing legislative activity affecting voting and elections is powered by the Voting Rights Lab. Sign up for VRL’s weekly newsletter here.

The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,182 bills so far this session, with 579 bills that tighten the rules governing voter access or election administration and 1,037 bills that expand the rules.

Last week, Missouri’s governor signed a bill that makes the state’s voter ID law stricter and limits mail voting access, but the same bill also creates in-person early voting in the state for the first time. And a new Massachusetts law expands early voting and mail voting, as well as facilitates voter registration.

Meanwhile, North Carolina’s budget bill includes a review of the state’s voter registration system by the Electronic Registration Information Center. The governor of Louisiana vetoed a bill that would have blocked the implementation of federal law and federal grants for election administration.

Looking ahead: Delaware’s governor may sign a bill that allows no-excuse mail voting, bringing the state in line with the majority of the country.

Here are the details:


Missouri governor signs voting bill that creates in-person early voting, while also tightening the state’s voter ID law. On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Parson signed H.B. 1878 into law, making substantial changes to Missouri election law that will go into effect for the November election, but not in time for next month’s primaries. Missouri voters will have two weeks of in-person early voting leading up to Election Day, and election officials will implement safeguards to enhance cybersecurity and the post-election audit process. However, the law also eliminates many forms of ID that were previously acceptable for voting purposes and creates barriers to third-party voter registration activities. Additionally, the law restricts absentee voting in a number of ways, including by prohibiting the use of drop boxes for absentee ballot return.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Massachusetts expands early in-person and mail voting. Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill that allows voters to vote early in-person or by mail for all elections. Under the new law, the secretary of state will send all registered voters a mail ballot application before each election. Under prior law, in-person early voting and no-excuse mail voting were only available for biennial November general elections. The bill also moves the voter registration deadline from the 20th day before Election Day to the 10th day prior.

North Carolina’s budget bill includes funding for the state to join ERIC, but may limit the state’s ability to use it. Currently, North Carolina is not a member of ERIC, a database used by 31 states and D.C. to maintain accurate voter lists. H.B. 103 would provide one-time funding for membership with ERIC for one year. The bill would also require the State Board of Elections to seek the legislature’s approval prior to making any changes in the policies or procedures related to elections in North Carolina. This requirement would limit the board’s ability to use ERIC, because ERIC may require certain system changes for use of the database.

Louisiana governor vetoes a bill that would interfere with federal election policy. Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed H.B. 359, a bill that would have prohibited election officials from accepting or dispersing federal funds for elections without approval from the joint legislative committee on the budget. The bill also would have prohibited election officials from implementing federal directives or guidance regarding elections unless they were required to do so by state law or received legislative direction to do so.

Delaware is poised to eliminate its excuse requirement for mail voting. The Delaware legislature sent Gov. John Carney a bill that would establish no-excuse absentee voting in the state. Delaware is among a minority of states where voters are required to have a special qualifying reason or excuse in order to vote by mail.

Read More

Senior older, depressed woman sitting alone in bedroom at home
Kiwis/Getty Images

Older adults need protection from financial abuse by family members

A mentor once told me that we take better care of our pets than we do older victims of mistreatment. As a researcher, I have sat across from people, including grown men, crying while recounting harrowing experiences of discovering and confronting elder financial exploitation within their families — by siblings, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, girlfriends and neighbors. Intervening and helping victimized older people comes at a tremendous cost to caring family members. Currently, no caregiving or other policy rewards them for the time, labor, or emotional and relationship toll that results from helping to unravel financial abuse.
Keep ReadingShow less
Woman holding her head in her hands in front of her computer

A woman watches Vice President Kamala Harris' concession speech on Nov. 6 after Donald Trump secured enough voters to win a second term in the White House.

Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Political grief: A U.S. epidemic stimulated by Project 2025

When most people think about grief, they associate it with the death of a loved one. They reflect on past memories, shared experiences and precious moments of life. It is natural for one to yearn for the past, the comfort and safety of familiar times and stability. Now, with the promise of a second term for Donald Trump and the suggested implementation of Project 2025, thousands of U.S. citizens are anticipating a state of oppression driven by the proposition of drastic, authoritarian political policies.
Keep ReadingShow less
Woman's hand showing red thumbs up and blue thumbs down on illustrated green background
PM Images/Getty Images

Why a loyal opposition is essential to democracy

When I was the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, a small, African nation, the long-serving dictator there routinely praised members of the “loyal opposition.” Serving in the two houses of parliament, they belonged to pseudo-opposition parties that voted in lock-step with the ruling party. Their only “loyalty” was to the country’s brutal dictator, who remains in power. He and his cronies rig elections, so these “opposition” politicians never have to fear being voted out of office.

In contrast, the only truly independent party in the country is regularly denounced by the dictator and his ruling party as the “radical opposition.” Its leaders and members are harassed, often imprisoned on false charges and barred from government employment. This genuine opposition party has no representatives at either the national or local level despite considerable popular support. In dictatorships, there can be no loyal opposition.

Keep ReadingShow less
Migrants sits on the ground facing Border Patrol agents

U.S. Border Patrol agents detain migrants who camped in the border area near Jacumba, Calif.

Katie McTiernan/Anadolu via Getty Images

Do mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens?

This fact brief was originally published by EconoFact. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Do mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens?

Yes.

History shows mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens.

The anti-immigrant efforts of the Kennedy, Johnson, Roosevelt and Coolidge administrations either “generated no new jobs or earnings” or “harmed U.S. workers’ employment and earnings,” according to PIIE.

More recently, an analysis of President Obama’s deportation efforts found that deporting 500,000 immigrants causes around 44,000 job losses for U.S.-born workers.

Keep ReadingShow less