ANALYSIS: Blue and Red States Diverge With Thousands of Election Bills in State Legislatures

'Not true' that election integrity bills make it harder to vote, analyst says

Early voting has been under way in Virginia's Nov. 7 General Assembly election since Sept. 22 in polling sites such as this this one in Hillsboro, where voters here are casting their ballots on Nov. 3, 2020. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

So far in 2023, nearly 2,000 bills related to voting have been drafted by state legislators across the country. One election expert says there are two reasons Americans are seeing so many efforts to change election laws.

According to data from the Voting Rights Lab, state legislators in all 50 states plus local lawmakers in the District of Columbia have already drafted 1,884 bills related to voting rights ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle. By comparison, 2022 saw 2,218 bills in 45 states plus the capital, and 2021 saw 2,286 bills in 50 states plus the capital.

Bills in red states primarily tighten ballot security.

On May 24, Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7050 (pdf) into law. Among other things, the measure tightens restrictions on third-party voter registration in Florida, requires district supervisors to remove ineligible voters from the statewide database, and requires supervisors to cancel vote-by-mail ballot requests when they are returned as undeliverable.

In Arkansas, Senate Bill 258 (pdf), enacted on March 24, prohibits the use of ballot drop boxes.

In North Carolina, Senate Bill 747 (pdf) has passed the state Senate. If it passes the House, same-day voter registrants who do not meet specific ID requirements will have to cast provisional ballots. The measure also expands the ability of voters to challenge other voters’ registration, and requires mail-in ballot witnesses to print their names on the ballot envelope.

Measures in blue states loosen election policies.

In Michigan, Senate Bill 367 allows up to nearly a month of early voting.

In Maine, Senate Bill 677 restricts the ability of officials to remove voters from the permanent mail voting list by eliminating the failure to vote by mail ballot for one general election as a reason for removal.

House Joint Resolution 4, introduced in Oregon, will allow voters to register and cast a ballot the same day.

2020 Election Influencing New Laws

With five months remaining in 2023, it is likely that the number of election law measures will surpass those set in previous years.

Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

“There are two reasons why you’re seeing so many election bills,” he said.

The first is the Republican reflex to the unexpected and highly contested results of the 2020 presidential election.

Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative. (Courtesy of Hans von Spakovsky)

“I’ve been working on election integrity for 20 years, and for that 20 years I’ve been recommending all kinds of improvements that would fix the holes in our current system,” Mr. von Spakovsky told The Epoch Times. “But it wasn’t until the 2020 election that legislators in red states realized that there’s a problem and something should be done about it. That’s why you’ve seen a flurry of bills in places like Georgia, Florida, and Texas putting in common sense improvements in the election process.”

The second reason Mr. von Spakovsky believes so many election-related bills are being pushed through state legislatures is due to progressives’ efforts to expand on the advantages they managed during the 2020 election through the COVID-19 scare, and “to accelerate their push for things they want to, frankly, make it easier to cheat.”

‘Complete Nonsense’

In describing the impact of the bills in Florida, Arkansas, and North Carolina, Voting Rights Lab says the measures restrict voter access. Those in Michigan, Maine, and Oregon are said to improve voter access.

In its July 24 analysis of the Voting Rights Lab report, FiveThirtyEight found that 16 states made it harder to vote, while 26 made it easier.

Mr. von Spakovsky said the use of terms like “restricts voter access” and “harder to vote” to imply that laws meant to tighten ballot security will make it harder for some people to vote are “complete nonsense.”

“For example,” Mr. von Spakovsky explained, “Texas and Georgia extended their voter ID laws in the reforms they passed after the 2020 election but they only apply to in-person voting. But that didn’t make it harder to vote. In fact, Georgia’s election had a higher turnout than New York and California, which had no ID requirement of any kind.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said Georgia voters “came out in force in the 2022 midterm elections, shattering midterm turnout records.” Voter turnout fell in New York and in California.

“The idea that they’re making it tougher to vote is just not true,” Mr. von Spakovsky asserted.

Importance of Photo ID

During his April 27 testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on House Administration, Mr. von Spakovsky revealed the results of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.

“One of the important best practices contained in the Heritage Scorecard is requiring a photo identification (“ID”) for both in-person and absentee voting,” Mr. von Spakovsky stated in his testimony.

The top 10 states ranked by The Heritage Foundation as having the best election practices as of March 2023 are all controlled by Republicans, while eight of the 10 states with the least effective rules for ensuring voter integrity, according to The Heritage Foundation, are controlled by Democrats.

A sign used to recruit election integrity volunteers at a Loudoun County Virginia Republican election event on June 8, 2023. (Masooma Haq/The Epoch Times)

Mr. von Spakovsky also reminded the legislators of how “Congress itself imposed a voter ID requirement” in the 2002 “Help America Vote Act” (pdf), mandating that all individuals registering to vote by mail for the first time in a federal election must provide a current and valid photo identification or some other government document that shows the name and address of the voter.

“Congress made it clear, though, that this ID requirement is a ’minimum‘ requirement and ’nothing in this title shall be construed to prevent a State from establishing … requirements that are more strict,'” Mr. von Spakovsky testified.

He further advised that “turnout data and other evidence show very clearly that claims that voter ID requirements prevent eligible individuals from voting are simply untrue.”

Studies and Surveys

Despite allegations that the increased number of states enacting strict voter ID laws in 2020 depressed voter turnout, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century.

Mr. von Spakovsky noted how even the most recent studies show that ID requirements do not restrict people from voting.

A study released on Feb. 6, 2023, by the National Academy of Sciences showed “negligible average effects” associated with voter ID laws. Moreover, “the first laws implemented produced a Democratic advantage, which weakened to near zero after 2012,” the study said.

The study ultimately concluded that “voter ID requirements motivate and mobilize supporters of both parties, ultimately mitigating their anticipated effects on election results.”

A study released in 2019 by the University of Bologna’s Enrico Cantoni and Harvard Business School’s Vincent Pons also revealed that voter ID laws do not decrease voter turnout, even among minority voters.

The results of a 2012 Poverty Action Lab study showed that ID requirements had no adverse effect on voter turnout, and that some messages included in informational postcards sent to voters “actually increased turnout.”

Mr. von Spakovsky also pointed out how polling shows that America’s voters don’t agree voter ID laws are restrictive.

“Americans overwhelmingly support voter ID laws, and it’s a majority of everyone; whites, blacks, Republicans, Democrats, and Hispanics,” Mr. von Spakovsky asserted. “Yet they say it restricts voting. But that’s not what the American people say about it.”

A 2021 Monmouth University Poll (pdf) confirmed that voter ID laws were overwhelmingly supported by every demographic surveyed. A survey by Rasmussen found the same results.

A survey by Honest Elections Project (pdf) showed similar results. In addition, it showed that 64 percent of voters “want election reform to focus on building confidence by adding safeguards to elections.” Only 22 percent said they want to eliminate ballot protections.

Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead concluded that “the public consensus on voting reform stands in stark contrast to the renewed progressive demands for Congress to eliminate safeguards like voter ID laws and protections for mail-in ballots nationwide.”

A 2022 Gallup poll showed that 8 in 10 Americans favor voting laws requiring a photo ID.

‘An Invitation to Fraud’

While insisting that tighter ballot security measures improve election integrity, Mr. von Spakovsky suggests that liberal initiatives—such as eliminating voter ID and signature verification, and mailing unsolicited ballots to all voters—“is an invitation to fraud.”

He cited the costly chaos that ensued in Washington during the 2020 November election after the District of Columbia Board of Elections decided to mail unsolicited ballots to every voter.

As outlined in the Nov. 16, 2021, report by the District of Columbia Election Administration (pdf), thousands of those unsolicited mail-in ballots were returned as undeliverable and thousands of voters were sent ballots for people who no longer lived at their address.

In all, 11 percent of those unsolicited ballots were returned as undeliverable, more than eight times the national average, which NPR’s analysis estimates to be about 1 percent.

“Since the state has no ID law there is nothing to prevent someone from simply taking in all of the ballots that have arrived for people who no longer live there, from signing them with a fake signature and mailing them in,” Mr. von Spakovsky proposed. “I will guarantee you, those ballots get counted by D.C. officials because they are so sloppy at what they do.”

‘Minimal Security Provisions’

While Voting Rights Lab tracks legislation related to election laws, it describes the impact of any measure that increases ballot security as legislation that “restricts voter access.” Bills that eliminate security measures are said to improve voter access.

While Voting Rights Lab describes itself as “a campaign hub designed to supercharge the fight against voter suppression,” Influence Watch says the initiative is backed by liberal donors and partners with liberal policy groups in an effort to change voting laws and to reduce ballot security measures at the state level.

The measure signed by Mr. DeSantis in Florida was immediately challenged with lawsuits by a host of liberal organizations as being unconstitutional.

The Arkansas Times labeled the state’s ban on ballot boxes as a means of “voter suppression.”

In North Carolina, a Democrat state lawmaker insists the measure that passed in the North Carolina Senate will undermine democracy.

Mr. von Spakovsky suggests these efforts are intended to undermine America’s faith in election integrity. Polling data supports his claim.

A December 2021 survey by Schoen Cooperman Research (pdf) showed that a staggering 85 percent of Americans surveyed are concerned about political extremism.

While 46 percent were concerned about extremism on both sides of the political aisle, more (23 percent) expressed concern over “left-wing extremism” than over “right-wing extremism” (21 percent). The majority (51 percent) believe “U.S. democracy is at risk of extinction.” While an equal number of Republicans and Democrats (49 percent) shared the same sentiment, 54 percent of independents fear for the survival of America’s democracy.

“That’s why they’ve attacked voter ID laws and tried to get rid of things like witness signature requirements on absentee ballots,” Mr. von Spakovsky concluded. “That’s why you’re seeing such huge numbers of bills. What you’re seeing in blue states is them basically trying to get rid of the minimal security provisions to make the process wide open so there is almost no security.”

In the meantime, Mr. von Spakovsky said “bills are getting dropped” by state legislators in red states “to fix the security holes in the current system.”