Southern states push new voting restrictions ahead of 2024 elections

As the U.S. prepares for the November elections, new restrictive voting laws threaten to further curb full participation in the electoral process. Over the past decade, the Republican Party has used false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud to undermine trust in the electoral system and to push policies that limit voter participation. After the Republican wave across state legislatures in 2010 and the 2013 Shelby v Holder decision, state legislatures passed laws including strict voter ID requirements, which disproportionately affect Black, Latino, women, and young people. Now, Republican lawmakers are introducing new measures to restrict voter access, which could curb participation ahead of November. 

A recent report by the Movement Advancement Project, an independent, nonprofit think tank, shows that 24 states have implemented more restrictive voting policies since 2020. The wave of anti-voting laws over the past four years disproportionately affected Black voters and voters in the South and Midwest. According to the data, at least 65% of Black voters now live in a state that has implemented at least one restrictive voting law. Altogether, 57% of eligible voters live in a state with more restrictions on casting a ballot than they faced four years ago.

This year, state legislators across the country have introduced over four times as many bills to limit voter access as they did last year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Lawmakers in 40 states have considered 291 GOP-sponsored bills to restrict voting access, including in Southern states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. These proposals aim to impose stricter voter ID requirements, make voter registration more challenging, and add new burdens on election workers.

Many of these laws have been of particular concern to disability rights advocates. Earlier this year, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) signed Senate Bill 1, a restrictive absentee ballot assistance bill. The measure, which will take effect in time for November's general election, makes it illegal for individuals other than close family members or housemates to help someone request, fill out, or return an absentee ballot. Anyone caught receiving or giving money for this practice, disparagingly known as "ballot harvesting," could be prosecuted with a felony offense.

The GOP circulated false allegations and conspiracy theories about widespread "ballot harvesting" during the 2020 and 2022 elections — though numerous reports found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in either election. Despite this, Alabama Republicans claimed that their bill was a necessary response to a rising problem. In response, a coalition of civil rights, voting rights, and disability rights organizations filed a lawsuit challenging  SB1 as discriminatory. The same groups filed a proposed injunction in the hopes that the law's enforcement could be blocked until Oct. 29 of this year, which is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot by mail for the general election. 

Last month, the Alabama Attorney General's Office filed a request asking the court to reject a request for a preliminary injunction, stating that "SB1 strikes a balance between security and accessibility, deterring fraudulent conduct while insulating vulnerable voters and the electoral system from manipulation." According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, only 25 cases of voter fraud have occurred in Alabama since 2000.

 "SB1 represents the latest assault on Alabama voters who simply want their voices heard and their choices counted regardless of differing abilities, health status and unpredictable work schedules that require their voter participation be by absentee ballot and often with the support of friends, family, and civic organizations," said Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, which serves as one of the plaintiffs.  "There is no 'voter integrity' in penalizing those who assist those who must vote absentee, only voter suppression."

Louisiana governor Jeff Landry (R) has also signed a slate of anti-voter legislation over the past month. All of the laws are part of the Secretary of State's Election Integrity Legislative Package which are place a host of new obstacles on voter participation. 

Two of these laws aim to restrict voter assistance and hinder voter registration drives. House Bill 506 will require individuals and organizations to register with the secretary of state before holding voter registration drives beginning on August 1. And House Bill 581 criminalizes being a witness on more than one absentee ballot for non-immediate family members, requires witnesses to be 18 years old, and requires them to provide their mailing addresses on the mail-in-ballot certificate. Voting advocates argue that this law also makes it more difficult for voters with disabilities to participate in the electoral process. 

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia also recently signed three new voter suppression bills into law. House Bill 974 makes all ballots accessible to the public through the Georgia Secretary of State's website, without personal information available on the digital scans. This law makes it easier for Georgians to challenge other voters' eligibility to cast a ballot. It is part of a concerning pattern in Republican states to expand citizen-led "audits" influenced by the disinformation about voting spread during the 2020 election.

The second Georgia bill, House Bill 1207, mandates that all election workers be U.S. citizens and reduces the number of election machines per voter at every polling site, with one machine per every 250 voters. And the third, Senate Bill 189, lowers the bar for challenging a voter's eligibility, requires all advanced and absentee ballots to be counted within an hour of polls closing, and permits voters to be purged from the rolls up until 45 days before an election. The last provision is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits the removal of voters within 90 days of a federal election. Advocates argue that this new law makes it harder to cast a ballot and creates a more difficult process for election officials.

"SB 189 is a step back for voters' rights and voting access in the state of Georgia," said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia. "Most importantly, this bill will require already overburdened election workers to spend time processing unnecessary voter challenges."