Access to the Ballot Box: State Legislative Activity that Should Concern Indian Country

American Indian Advocacy: Strengthening Tribal Soverignty

In a response to enormous voter turnout in the 2020 general election, that in part has been fueled by the loud but baseless cry of voter fraud and election irregularities, state legislators across the country have introduced hundreds of bills that impact access to the ballot box… some restrictive and many expansive. So far this year, 165 restrictive bills have been filed in in 33 states, over 4x the number of restrictive bills at this same time last year. In 2020, at about the same time last year, only 35 such bills were introduced in 15 states. Now on the other side of this issue, to date 35 states have introduced 541 bills that would expand voting access, compared to only 118 expansive bill filed in 29 states last year. For the legislation that has been filed, it’s clear that there is a great interest in absentee voting reform, with more than a quarter of voting and election bills addressing absentee voting procedures.