Note: The information in this article reflects legislative activity as of July 2022.
The right to vote is fundamental to democracy. Groups that were historically excluded from voting – including women, Black Americans, and young adults – fought hard to win this right. Many communities that face obstacles to voting – such as people with disabilities, people with limited English proficiency, returning citizens, Black and Indigenous people, and other people of color – continue to push for equal access to the ballot. Between 2010 and 2019, 25 states enacted new barriers to voting, including voter purges – a practice in which voter lists are “cleaned” that can be harmful to groups historically excluded from voting since they are more likely to be wrongfully removed from voter rolls. Other restrictions include strict voter ID requirements, polling place closures, limits on early voting, and obstacles to voter registration. Following the 2020 election, which saw record-level voter turnout, states have taken steps to limit access to the ballot.
Below are summaries of recently passed laws that will make it harder to vote. Please note that this list is not comprehensive. Information is drawn from the Brennan Center for Justice’s May 2022 Voting Laws Roundup and December 2021 Voting Laws Roundup, as well as Voting Rights Lab’s State Voting Rights Tracker, accessible at tracker.votingrightslab.org.
Alabama
House Bill 285, enacted in May 2021, prohibits curbside or outdoor voting, including the process by which poll workers deliver ballots to voters outside the polling place.
Arizona
House Bill 2492, signed by Governor Doug Ducey in March 2022, requires election workers to verify documentation of citizenship for voters in federal elections. The law also requires newly registered voters to provide a proof of address, which will create barriers for students, Native Americans, low-income voters, and elderly voters who no longer have a driver’s license. Many legal experts believe that the law is unconstitutional, and voting rights organizations are already challenging the law in federal court. Senate Bill 1485, enacted in May 2021, effectively eliminates the state’s permanent early voting list and will limit access to mail-in voting for hundreds of thousands of Arizonans, disproportionately impacting Independent voters and voters of color. House Bill 2905, enacted in July 2021, prohibits elected officials from delivering a mail-in ballot to a voter who has not requested one, unless the voter is on the active early voting list, or an election is explicitly authorized to occur by mail. House Bill 2243, enacted in July 2022, implements voter list maintenance procedures that require election officials to investigate registered voters using data sources not intended to determine voter eligibility. These new procedures increase the risk that voters will have their registrations cancelled without notice.
Arkansas
House Bill 1112 and House Bill 1244, signed by Governor Asa Hutchinson in March 2021, created harsh voter ID requirements. HB 1112 requires a photo ID to verify a provisional ballot and no longer allows voters without proper ID to ensure their ballots are counted by signing their name. HB 1244 establishes that non-photo IDs are no longer valid for voter identification. The governor also signed House Bill 1715, which reduces the number of mail-in ballots that a person can possess from 10 to four and therefore limits the assistance they can provide to other voters. The bill bans county clerks and other designated election officials from distributing mail-in ballot applications or ballots to voters who had not requested them and requires election officials to verify the signature of a voter’s mail-in ballot application with their voter registration application. If the signatures do not match, a mail-in ballot will not be sent out. In addition, Arkansas enacted Senate Bill 643, which shortens the window to apply for mail-in ballots, moves forward the deadline to return mail-in ballots, and prohibits ballot drop boxes.
Florida
Senate Bill 90, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April 2021, makes it harder for Florida voters to register and cast a ballot. The law requires voters to provide a state ID number or the last four digits of a Social Security number to receive a mail-in ballot and strictly limits the availability of ballot drop boxes. The law also limits voter registration drives and bans distributing food and water to voters waiting in line at their polling places. Voters will also be removed from the vote-by-mail list more frequently, so they will not automatically receive mail-in ballots in future elections. Although a federal district court judge struck down the law’s most harmful provisions in April 2022, the appellate court blocked the decision and allowed the law to go into effect for the August 2022 primary elections. Florida also enacted Senate Bill 524 in April 2022, which includes new requirements for voter list maintenance, creates an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State, criminalizes collecting more than two mail-in ballots other than a voter’s own ballot and that of an immediate family member, and moves the deadline for requesting supervised voting in an assisted living facility to an earlier date (28 days versus 21 days) before the election, among other restrictive provisions.
Georgia
Senate Bill 202, signed by Governor Brian Kemp in March 2021, contains a suite of measures that make it harder to vote. The law bans distributing food and water to voters waiting in line – a discriminatory provision because people of color are more likely to wait in long lines at polling places. The law also strictly limits ballot drop boxes, applies voter ID requirements to vote-by-mail applications, shortens the window to apply for a mail-in ballot, and increases the state legislature’s power to overturn local election results.
Idaho
House Bill 290, signed by Governor Brad Little in April 2021, enacts stricter restrictions on mail-in ballots. The bill requires that the county clerk verify voter signatures to ensure that the voter’s signature on an absentee ballot matches the signature on a voter’s registration form.
Indiana
Senate Bill 398, signed by Governor Eric Holcomb in April 2021, establishes restrictive rules for fixing errors on mail-in ballots, particularly where the signature on the envelope is questionable. The bill also requires that mail-in ballot drop boxes are under the physical control and supervision of election officials, which significantly limits the availability of drop boxes.
Iowa
Governor Kim Reynolds signed far-reaching legislation to restrict voting – Senate File (SF) 413 and SF 568 – in spring 2021. The legislation contains provisions that forbid auditors from sending mail-in ballot request forms to voters unless the voter explicitly asks, severely restrict anyone other than the individual voter from returning a mail-in ballot, and limit satellite early voting locations. The new voting laws reduce the early voting period from 29 to 20 days before Election Day and shorten the mail-in ballot request period. SF 413 marks voters as inactive every time they miss a federal election, requires Iowa to use U.S. Postal Service change-of-address data for list maintenance, and threatens county auditors with criminal prosecution if they do not follow voter roll purge practices – all practices which significantly increase the risk of flawed purges that wrongfully remove voters from the rolls. Finally, Iowa’s polling places will close an hour earlier, and employees are only required to provide two hours of paid time off work to vote, rather than the three hours they were previously required to provide.
Kansas
House Bill 2332 banned the distribution of mail-in ballot applications by out-of-state groups and criminalized the mailing of advance mail-in ballot applications personalized with the voter’s name, address, and other information, even if the voter provided that information and specifically requested an advance mail-in ballot application. The Kansas legislature passed the bill in April 2021 and overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto, but a federal district judge blocked certain provisions of the law from taking effect. House Bill 2183 requires the voter’s written authorization for another person to deliver an advance ballot on their behalf and limits to 10 the number of ballots someone can deliver for other voters. The legislation also requires election officials to match signatures on advance ballots with the signature on file for the ballot to count. The Kansas legislature passed the bill in May 2021 over Governor Kelly’s veto. A lower court declined to block the implementation of this bill, but further litigation is still proceeding.
Kentucky
House Bill 574, signed by Governor Andy Beshear in April 2021, shortens the window to apply for a mail-in ballot, restricts assistance that voters can receive with returning their mail-in ballot, and expands the ability of state election officials to carry out faulty voter purges. Fortunately, the bill does include certain expansions in voter rights, such as implementing early in-person voting and expanding access to mail-in ballot drop boxes.
Louisiana
Senate Bill 144, signed by Governor John Bel Edwards in June 2022, requires that mail-in ballots be delivered to the parish registrar’s office or early voting sites during polling place hours, effectively prohibiting ballot drop boxes.
Mississippi
House Bill 1510, signed by Governor Tate Reeves in April 2022, requires that local election officials confirm a voter’s citizenship before they are registered to vote if their citizenship status cannot be confirmed in the state’s Department of Public Safety database or the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service database. However, these databases have been found to be unreliable, increasing the likelihood that the law will result in wrongful voter purges.
Missouri
House Bill 1878, signed by Governor Mike Parson in June 2022, requires voters who do not have mandatory photo ID to vote on a provisional ballot. To have their ballot counted, the voter must return before the polling place closes with a required photo ID or confirm their identity with signature matching between a signed affidavit and the voter file. The bill also prohibits the use of drop boxes to return mail-in ballots, tightens eligibility for mail-in voting, and limits third party assistance with mail-in ballots. Fortunately, the bill also includes some provisions to make voting more accessible, such as the establishment of early in-person voting.
Montana
House Bill 176 and Senate Bill 169, signed by Governor Greg Gianforte in April 2021, eliminate same-day voter registration and impose new voter ID requirements. The end of same-day voter registration will have a disproportionate impact on Native American voters, who make up nearly 7% of Montana’s population, because they can no longer make a single long-distance trip to register and cast their ballots. HB 176 and SB 169 are being challenged in court, but they remain in effect as of June 2022. Montana also enacted Senate Bill 196, which allows jurisdictions with fewer than 400 registered voters who intend to vote in-person to move their opening time from 7 am to as late as noon. Montana also passed House Bill 530, an election security bill that jeopardizes ballot collection efforts on Native reservations. A Montana state trial court judge temporarily blocked this measure from going into effect in April 2022.
New Hampshire
House Bill 523, signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu in July 2021, requires voters who do not have an ID to be photographed when registering to vote on Election Day. Governor Sununu also signed Senate Bill 31, which requires the Secretary of State to confirm that people who vote in New Hampshire but previously voted in another state are removed from their former state’s checklist. Senate Bill 418, signed into law by Governor Sununu in June 2022, requires voters who register on Election Day without a valid photo ID to vote on a separate affidavit ballot. To have their ballots counted, these voters must mail documentation to the secretary of state’s office within seven days. The law will take effect in January of 2023.
New York
Senate Bill 264, signed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo in July 2021, shortens the window during which a voter can apply for a mail-in ballot.
Oklahoma
House Bill 2663, signed by Governor Kevin Stitt in May 2021, shortens the timeframe in which voters can request a mail-in ballot. Fortunately, the bill adds an extra day to the in-person early voting period. House Bill 3364, enacted in May 2022, requires voters to include an ID number in their application for a mail-in ballot that matches the ID number on their voter registration.
Texas
Senate Bill 1, signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in September 2021, limits the types of assistance that voter engagement organizations, election officials, and election workers can provide to voters. Although the federal Voting Rights Act requires that voters with disabilities and voters with limited English proficiency receive assistance while voting, this law narrows the definition so that assistants cannot answer a clarifying question or help navigate a polling place. The law bans in-person drive-thru voting, bans 24-hour voting options, prevents election administrators from sending out mail-in ballots unless they are specifically requested, and establishes new voter ID requirements for mail-in voting.
Utah
House Bill 12, enacted in March 2021, increases the likelihood of wrongful voter purges by requiring cross-referencing of death certificates against voter registration rolls without providing notice to the voters being removed from the voter rolls, auditing the source data, or using matching criteria. Utah also enacted House Bill 197, which requires voters to update their political affiliation by March 31 of an even-numbered year if they wish to participate in the primary election for a party with which they are not currently affiliated.
Wyoming
House Bill 75, signed by Governor Mark Gordon in April 2021, requires Wyoming voters to present specific kinds of photo identification when they cast ballots in person.
