Georgia recently passed a new law that significantly limits voter access. Texas, another Republican-led state has followed suit, passing more restrictions on vote-by-mail and early voting. Georgia Lyon had some information in Campaign Legal Center about this development. Here is an excerpt:
The Texas Senate passed S.B. 7, a bill that severely restricts the right of Texans to vote, on March 7, 2021. If signed into law, this proposal would erect more deliberate barriers to voting, prohibiting local efforts to expand voting access and silencing Texans in the process.
S.B. 7 makes it harder for people to vote by cutting early voting hours, prohibiting drive through voting, barring local election officials from sending vote-by-mail ballot applications to voters who have not requested them and allowing partisan poll watchers to videotape voters at polling places.
Many of the provisions in this legislation come as a direct response to the fact that Texans, especially in the state’s increasingly diverse urban and suburban communities, turned out to vote in record numbers in the 2020 elections.
Continue reading here. Also, see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on the Voter Access, Voter Turnout, or even seen our section on American Democracy.
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