Every Democratic State Has Now Expanded Voting Rights. The Fight Doesn't End Here.

     June 8th, 2022, will go down as a good day in history for democracy. In 2021, in response to Republican efforts to suppress the vote, particularly among voters of color, Democratic states announced historic efforts to expand access to voting. By the end of 2021, every state with Democratic legislatures had expanded voting rights except Rhode Island. On June 8th, Rhode Island Governor McKee signed the "Let RI Vote Act" expanding voting rights, meaning that every Democratic state has now expanded voting rights, as have several states with mixed governments and even a few states in which relatively moderate Republicans are in charge: the number of states that have expanded voting rights now outnumber those that have or will ever restrict them.

     However, that is not the end of the story. Any voter restriction in any state is a step backward for democracy, and so there are steps that need to be taken to stop this at the state, local, and federal level:

1. Repeal voting rights restrictions and expand voting rights with ballot initiatives in states like Arizona, Florida, and Ohio, which have ballot initiatives for statutes and/or amendments to the state constitution.
2. Share best practices for voting rights expansion among states that have already done so. From expanding access to mail-in voting to increasing early voting opportunities, a lot can be done to expand voting rights, and not every state has done everything. Sharing best practices can ensure every state that has expanded voting rights has a way to continue doing so in the future.
3. Restore voting rights to felons. Millions of people in the United States are unable to vote because of racially-motivated voting restrictions targeting felons. Most of these people could get their rights back by expanding access to voting among parolees, people on probation, and even prisoners.
4. Expand grassroots efforts to promote voting. Voting has spiked even in states with restrictions in counties where long, dedicated efforts have been made to get people to the polls. We need a nationwide, coordinated effort to get out the vote, especially in states that have enacted voting restrictions.
5. Continue to fight voter restrictions and racial gerrymandering in Republican-led states in state and federal courts by any means possible.

     This is not a substitute for national action on voting. It is, however, enough to combat the GOP's Jim Crow 2.0. The January 6th Committee's hearings have made it clear how close we came to losing democracy on January 6th, 2021, and in the weeks and months before and since. The announcement of a bipartisan framework to revise the Electoral Count Act and prevent any future attempts at a coup is a huge step forward. Aside from arresting Trump and his co-conspirators, we can and must expand voting rights at the federal level. I will have a framework on doing just that next week.