Will New Election Laws Change How You Vote?

The politics of voting

The rush to change voting rules has been met with aggressive media coverage and the usual partisan rancor. Experts acknowledge that more attention has been paid to laws that seem to restrict voter access than to those that expand it, but note there’s a legitimate reason for that: Restrictive laws are the ones more likely to affect people’s ability to vote.

“We absolutely need to make sure that our elections are fair and fraud isn’t occurring,” says Nancy Martorano Miller, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton. “But we also need to find ways to make it easier to cast ballots, because the whole system rests on citizens participating. That’s the primary way in which citizens give their consent to be governed — by voting.”

Miller said the corrupt political machines in the 1890s gave birth to many of the laws that all these years later govern voter registration, mandate a secret ballot and determine how to verify that the person who is casting a ballot is, indeed, that person. She adds that it’s too soon to tell if any of the voting laws that have been put in place since 2020 — whether restrictive or expansive — will have any impact on turnout in 2022 and beyond.

AARP’s 2022 voter engagement campaign, Our Voices Decide, is dedicated to helping older voters navigate this new election landscape. In some states, the organization has worked with state lawmakers to push for measures that expand — not restrict — a citizen’s ability to cast a ballot. “As part of our mission to empower Americans 50-plus, AARP has long advocated for fair and straightforward election procedures,” says Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer. “Older Americans must be able to freely, easily and safely exercise their constitutional right to vote. At the same time, we are working to ensure that our elections are free from fraud and abuse.”

AARP has produced election guides for all 50 states, plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that voters can consult to view the election rules where they live.

State changes

The consensus among experts is that Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas have adopted measures that could most restrict people’s ability to vote.

• Arizona’s new rules make it easier for election officials to purge people from the voting rolls, including a provision that would remove someone from the early voter list if he or she doesn’t consistently vote early. Individuals are also removed from the early voter list if they fail to vote in two consecutive elections. Arizona has also passed a law requiring people to show proof of citizenship to vote. The proof must be a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate or tribal card. This rule has come under considerable criticism, and its implementation may be postponed until after the 2022 election. There will also be an initiative on the November ballot to increase ID requirements for mail ballots and in-person voting.
• Florida now requires a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a voter’s Social Security number to request an absentee ballot and to make a registration change, such as updating an address. Absentee ballot applications require strict signature matches, and voters can now only request absentee ballots in person, with a written request or by phone. The state also has cut back on the use of drop boxes. And instead of voters being able to drop off their ballots 24/7, the boxes will now be monitored by election officials and can only be used during voting hours.
• Georgia’s new election law has probably gotten most of the national attention, especially the provision that bans people from providing food or water to voters in line. But other elements that could affect people’s ability to vote include a significant reduction in drop boxes, a requirement that mail ballot signatures match a person’s signature from when he or she registered, that one must show a driver’s license, state ID number or the last four digits of a voter’s Social Security number, and date of birth. The state also banned mobile polling places unless the governor declares a disaster in the state.
• Texas law adds identification requirements for mail voting, including one that received much attention leading up to the March 1 Texas primary, the first in the nation in this election cycle. This rule requires voters to put their Social Security or driver’s license number on their absentee ballot application. And that number must match the one they used when they registered to vote. This could be especially problematic for older voters who registered to vote decades ago and cannot remember which number they used or who may have registered before any identification numbers were required. The new Texas law also bans overnight and drive-through voting.

As with the laws that could restrict access to voting, most of the measures that experts say have the potential to make it easier to vote center on rules governing mail voting and early voting.

• California, Nevada and Vermont joined Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington in moving to all-mail elections. That means that in these states, all registered voters will automatically receive a ballot in the mail. Nebraska and North Dakota are allowing certain individual counties to conduct all-mail elections.
• Connecticut, New York and Washington expanded voting rights to people with past felony convictions.
• Connecticut and Delaware enacted laws providing for automatic voter registration (AVR), while Illinois, Maine, Nevada and New York expanded their existing AVR laws.
• Connecticut also passed a law extending the ability of caregivers and commuters to cast an absentee ballot. A constitutional amendment would be required to enact complete no-excuse absentee balloting (the existing law requires voters to provide a recognized excuse to get an absentee ballot).​​
• Illinois made permanent a pandemic-enacted policy that allows curbside voting and drop boxes.
• Massachusetts expanded no-excuse early and mail voting.