There are various types of barriers facing voters including photo ID requirements, voting booth availability, the flexibility of poll hours, and the availability of time off from work with pay for voting. Some states even have financial penalties for the violation of deadlines or rules related to registration lists. Online voter registration, absentee voting, and early voting are some policies that clearly are shown to ease voting. However, since the inauguration of President Biden, the Republicans have accelerated more voter restrictions. However, their attempts, which can be seen as a continuation of the big lie that there was fraud in the last presidential election, is a race against time. This analysis is from CNN by Ronald Brownstein:

With their drive to erect new obstacles to voting, particularly across the Sun Belt, Republicans are stacking sandbags against a rising tide of demographic change.

In many of the states where Republicans are advancing the most severe restrictions — including Georgia, Arizona and Texas — shifts in the electorate’s composition are eroding decades of virtually uncontested GOP dominance.

In each of those states — and others such as North Carolina, South Carolina and, in a slightly different way, Florida — the GOP still holds a statewide advantage primarily because of its strong performance among older, non-college-educated and non-urban White voters. But in almost all those states, the Republican edge is ebbing amid two powerful demographic currents: an improving Democratic performance among white-collar voters in and around the states’ rapidly growing major cities, and the aging into the electorate of younger generations defined by kaleidoscopic racial diversity.

Continue reading here. Read the full article here. Also, see related Democracy Chronicles articles like those on the Voter Access, Voter Turnout, or even seen our section on American Democracy.