a question of fairness the effect of these laws on turnout is uncertain especially if they inspire a backlash mobilization or civic education efforts lawsuits may block some laws in early october 2022 a montana state judge deemed three laws unconstitutional – one that required additional identification if voting with a student id another that halted third-party ballot collection and a third that banned same-day voter registration the last two laws would have adversely affected native americans who might live 50 miles from a polling place in september 2021 the gop-controlled texas legislature passed a new election law that restricted early voting tightened absentee voting instituted new rules for voter assistance and added criminal penalties for some violations one ramification occurred during the 2022 primary when texas election officials rejected over 12% of absentee ballots a huge increase from the normal 1% to 2% while rejections equally affected voters in republican and democratic texas primaries strict rules about who could vote absentee meant most of those disqualified voters were over 65 or had disabilities depending on who was the majority party texas democratic and republican politicians have long led the nation in making voting difficult for black citizens since the end of the civil war and more recently once republicans gained power in the 1980s in 2020 republican governor greg abbott restricted ballot drop boxes to only one per county giving the 47 million people in the 1 778 square miles of harris county which is 203% black the same ability to drop off their ballot as the 10 500 people in the 275 square miles of franklin county which is 48% black before the ban harris county intended to provide 11 ballot boxes for easier access abbott claimed he was increasing ballot security but the reality was that he increased the difficulty for city dwellers who increasingly lean democratic and nonwhite to vote perhaps the countrys most restrictive election law georgias election integrity act of 2021 reduced mail and early voting while making the state election board a more political office fulton county the largest county with over a million people and is 447% black will be limited to eight ballot drop boxes – all indoors instead of the usual 38 outdoor drop boxes in addition the law banned the county from using mobile voting buses media attention however focused on a ban on offering food or water to voters within 150 feet of a polling place or within 25 feet of voters waiting in line an exception was made for poll workers and election judges who can provide water to voters just as some nonprofits have helped states improve the clarity and legibility of their ballots so too could similar nonpartisan expertise of resource optimization and supply chain management improve the administration of elections like other state governments georgia could minimize the time needed to vote if it provided the resources training and communication to its staff that administers elections and thus encourage american citizens to exercise their ability to vote a cornerstone of our election process is fundamental fairness matthew weil the bipartisan policy center elections project director stated if different people are experiencing the election system the voting experience quite unequally thats a problem – full stop this story was originally published by texas a&m today and the conversation