Absentee Voting
From January – August 2023, state legislatures nationwide passed various bills into law. While following these developments, the League noticed several important trends around voting rights and election administration.
In 2023, at least 322 bills restricting voting access were introduced in state legislatures nationwide.
Though many of these restrictions may appear simple and easy to comply with, they often have a huge impact on voters with disabilities, people of color, indigenous communities, students, young voters, and older adults. Four common voting restrictions — third-party ballot drop-off restrictions, early voting restrictions, ballot drop-box restrictions, and strict absentee ballot requirements — are particularly devastating.
This story was originally published by Associated Press.
Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday concluded the 2023 legislative session that was marked by tax cut measures and ended with the shelving of some controversial measures, including a bill that would make it a crime to help a non-family member fill out an absentee ballot.
Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama, said she was relieved the bill did not pass. She said it would have authorized the state to “intimidate, arrest and prosecute patriotic, law-abiding citizens for merely helping their friends and neighbors be able to vote absentee.”
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in a case that will likely determine how extensively absentee ballot drop boxes can be used in the upcoming midterm election where the battleground state’s Democratic governor and Republican U.S. senator are on the ballot.
LWV of Pennsylvania and partners filed an amicus brief in Hamm v. Boockvar, a case that challenges the state’s practice of notifying voters whose ballots have signature errors and allowing them to cast a provisional ballot.
The US Supreme Court denied the Gear v. Wisconsin State Legislature plaintiffs’ application, declining to restore Wisconsin’s back-up option for voters who do not receive their requested absentee ballots in the mail.
Notice and cure processes are the most effective mitigation factor against voter suppression relating to mail-in ballots.
In a 4-4 decision, the US Supreme Court today ruled that Pennsylvania mailed ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted if they arrive before 5:00 pm on Friday, November 6.
LWV of Mississippi, along with other plaintiffs and civil rights groups that challenged Mississippi’s burdensome absentee ballot requirements, celebrated new protections put in place for absentee voters as the state conducts an historic election during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay in Richardson v. Texas Secretary of State, which exempts the state from requiring a notice and cure process for absentee ballots cast in the 2020 general election.