Voting Access in Swing States - New Legislation 2024

How New Voting Laws in Swing States Could Affect the Election

Story by Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The race for the White House is set to be determined in just a handful of hotly contested battlegrounds.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are overwhelmingly focusing their efforts on the seven swing states of Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina – and with good reason. Polls suggest the election will all but certainly be won by the narrowest of margins in many of the states – a repeat of outcomes in 2020 and in 2016 before that.

As voters prepare to head to the polls across the country in November and in a number of jurisdictions where they are already allowed to submit their ballots, new laws regarding access await them. The changes – enacted in the aftermath of the 2020 election, in which most states adopted emergency provisions to account for the coronavirus – vary largely depending on which party controls the state’s legislature and the governor’s mansion.

“We've seen every single state in this country has adjusted its election systems in some way since 2020. So that in itself is a really significant trend,” says Liz Avore, senior adviser at Voting Rights Lab, a nonpartisan organization that tracks election-related legislation. “These elections are going to be very different in many places this year than they were in 2020.”

Democrats in general have favored measures that expand ballot access, including absentee and mail-in voting – despite concerns that things like drop boxes and ballots transmitted through the mail could result in fraud. In many cases, allowances put in place during the pandemic were made permanent.

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Republicans, on the other hand, have prioritized the integrity of the vote, frequently pursuing legislative remedies that seek to make ballots and polling places more secure – even amid cries that implementing identification or verification requirements and shortened windows for returning ballots could make voting harder or discourage people from participating in the electoral process. Some measures curtailed accommodations made available during the COVID-19 election four years ago.

But each is suspicious of the other. Many Republicans claim that the Democratic laws are efforts to manipulate the tabulation process and allow people to cast ballots who should not be eligible to vote. Meanwhile, Democrats charge that Republican security measures are thinly disguised methods of limiting the vote – especially in minority communities.

Here’s a look at the voting access picture in the swing states, according to Voting Rights Lab and other sources:

Michigan: More Access

After Michigan voters approved several pro-voter reforms in 2022, the state has significantly increased access. Since 2020, the state legislature has not passed a single restrictive measure or law enabling election interference.

In 2023 alone, the state passed 12 laws expanding access to the ballot box. The Brennan Center for Justice says the package marks the most expansive legislation adopted by a single state in a year in the past decade.

Of the 10 laws in place for November’s election, five will make it easier to vote by mail. Early voting will take place for nine days this time around and all mail-in ballots will have prepaid return postage. In addition, every community will have a minimum of one drop box for absentee ballots. Officials have also codified their system allowing for absentee ballot applications online.

Two new laws also make voting easier by opening pre-registration to 16-year-olds and expanding same-day registration access. Another law repealed a ban on people helping voters get to polling locations.

Nevada: More Access

The Silver State since 2020 has enacted six election-related laws to expand voter access. Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nevada officials used emergency provisions to administer early voting in the state during the 2020 election.

Officials sent mail ballots to all voters in the state, set up at least one drop box in every county, allowed third parties to collect ballots and counted absentee ballots received by officials after Election Days if they were postmarked by then.

State Democratic leaders in 2021 made the changes permanent, meaning they will be in effect in November. The state legislature also implemented risk-limiting audits meant to signal confidence in election results.

Three other new laws include provisions to expand access to tribal voters living on Native American reservations, streamlining the process to set up polling places and drop boxes on the reservations. Before the new law, tribes had to submit a request for a drop box or polling place.

The state also expanded the number of state agencies that can handle automatic registration and has authorized the governor to designate any agency tied to a Native American tribe as a voter registration agency if requested.

Pennsylvania: Mixed Access

Pennsylvania voters will largely have increased access to voting, but those who choose to vote by mail may encounter some roadblocks.

Voters in the state will now be added to the voting rolls automatically, thanks to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who created a new system automatically registering eligible residents when they get a driver’s license or renew it.

But those choosing to vote via absentee ballots risk getting theirs tossed out if they don’t turn them in on time. During the 2020 election, mail ballots postmarked by Election Day were still counted up to three days after the election. This year, the ballots must be received by Election Day.

State law also requires voters to write the date they returned their ballots on the envelope. An appeals court in the state recently ruled that ballots with undated envelopes or those with the incorrect date on them could not be counted.

Wisconsin: Less Access

Wisconsin lawmakers have attempted several times over the past few years to pass laws that would have the effect of restricting the mail voting process, but Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed at least seven bills.

In 2020, hundreds of absentee ballot drop boxes were set up across the state in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But more than a year later, conservatives on the state Supreme Court ruled that state law didn’t allow for the usage of the boxes and barred them beginning in 2022.

After Democrats regained control of the court last year, they recently agreed to revisit the controversial ruling. A decision is pending.

Arizona: Largely the Same

In Arizona, voting access will largely be the same as it was during the 2020 election.

One significant change this time around is that election officials will have more time to process mail ballots, but it may still take them days to report enough votes to call a close race due to high turnout and low staffing.

A hotbed of election denialism, the state is also undergoing a battle over voting by mail. Republicans in the legislature who have expressed concerns about the integrity of the vote have been seeking to tighten some voting laws in the name of security, but all have been blocked so far by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Now several lawmakers are attempting to bypass her to schedule a ballot measure for this fall that would curb mail-in voting for future elections. It is unclear whether it would pass as the method has been popular for years in the state.

A federal court struck down most of the restrictive parts of a law passed in 2022 that expanded the state’s requirements to prove citizenship in order to vote. One portion of the law that remains imposes stricter requirements on some voters to prove residence. A case challenging the law is ongoing.

The state also has four new laws that were not in place during the last election. The laws impose criminal penalties on election workers for what the Brennan Center for Justice calls “routine” election-related activities, like sending mail ballots to voters who didn’t explicitly request one.

A new law passed in 2022 also requires voter registration forms to contain a statement that if the voter permanently moves out of state after registering to vote in Arizona, their registration will be canceled. The Brennan Center for Justice says the law opens the door to wrongful purging of voter roles.

North Carolina: Less Access

North Carolina has been the scene of several controversial voting law changes.

Voters in the state will have to produce a photo ID in order to vote in November – a change since 2020.

According to the law, when voters return their mail ballots, they must also include a copy of their ID along with a notary’s signature or the signature of two witnesses. According to the Voting Rights Lab, North Carolina is now the strictest in the country with regard to mail-in voting.

Another change regarding voting by mail is the date the ballots have to be received. In previous elections, ballots postmarked by Election Day were counted even if they arrived up to three days later. But this year, ballots have to be received by Election Day, setting up the possibility for many ballots to be tossed out.

The state also passed laws giving partisan poll observers more power at polling stations and making it easier to challenge mail-in or early voting ballots.

Georgia: Less Access

No stranger to showdowns over voting rights and access to the ballot, Georgia has also seen an increasing number of laws that could have the effect of restricting voting. Many came in the wake of the 2020 election, the results of which Trump and his allies stand accused of attempting to overturn in the state.

A 2021 law with a provision that limits handing out water or food to voters waiting in line at polling stations in Georgia drew sharp criticism. The same law also limits where ballot drop boxes can be placed in the state.

Another measure passed in March includes a ban on tabulators that count votes by reading QR codes or other markings left by computers on the ballots. While not scheduled to take effect until 2026, voting rights groups say it would make using tabulators and even hand-marked paper ballots virtually impossible. The state’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has yet to say whether he would sign it.

Voting Access in Swing States - New Legislation 2024

Voting Access in Swing States - New Legislation 2024

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