Title: In 22 States, a Wave of New Voting Restrictions Threatens to Shift Outcomes in Tight Races - The American Prospect
Headings: In 22 States, a Wave of New Voting Restrictions Threatens to Shift Outcomes in Tight Races
In 22 States, a Wave of New Voting Restrictions Threatens to Shift Outcomes in Tight Races
Voting Restrictions in Context
What Explains This Sudden Shift?
Early Voting Cuts
Other Voting Restrictions
Key States to Watch
What's Next?
Wendy R. Weiser

Content: The reason for this expansion? Early voting works well -voters like it, election officials like it, and it improves the election system. It is so non-controversial that the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration recently recommended that all states adopt it to prevent long lines at the polls. Despite this consensus, after the 2008 election, support for early voting eroded among Republican legislators in the South and Midwest. What changed? For the first time, African Americans had begun voting early at high rates. In Southern states, early voting by African Americans nearly tripled between 2004 and 2008, overtaking early voting by whites by a significant margin. In North Carolina, for example, seven in ten African Americans voted early in 2008, as compared to half of white voters. And while Republicans have traditionally been more likely to vote early, in 2008 Democratic early votes exceeded Republican ones. Just as early voting has become successful among minorities and lower-income voters, it has become a target
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