The Democrats have wasted no time in trying to rewrite the voting laws ahead of the 2024 presidential election. According to the non partisan Voting Rights Lab, in the 2023 legislative session more than 100 election-related bills have been filed across the country in Democratic-led swing states.
According to Politico, the Democrat-led states likely favor loosening voting restrictions by either expanding early voting or establishing automatic voter registration.
In Minnesota, state legislators are considering proposals to reinstate voting rights to convicted felons and creating an automatic voter registration process which would automatically enroll citizens unless they chose to opt out.
In an interview with Politico, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said, “these are proposals I’ve been talking about for years, even when Republicans controlled one or both of our legislative chambers. They’re not partisan in origin, nor in effect.”
In Michigan, state legislators are looking to change the state constitution to include new voting standards such as early voting to be nine-days prior, requiring votes to be signed or when voting in person a photo id would be required, and implanting a tracking system for absentee voting by approving state-funded stamps.
Pennsylvania is trying to allow pre-processing time for mail-in ballots so ballots can be counted before election day, a measure introduced by Republicans in 2021 but was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
Sen. David Argall (R-PA) told Politico “I have supported it in the past, I will support it in the future, but I don’t think you can do just that one thing. I think there’s going to be too many other people saying ‘plus this, plus this,’ and that’s where it gets complicated.”