Daily Beast: These States Are About to Put New Voting Laws to the Test

In March, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen had a blunt assessment of four new voting laws in Arkansas.

He said the new laws—two of which would make it harder to vote by mail, in addition to adding new ID requirements for provisional ballots—violated the state’s constitution and placed an undue burden on voters. For a moment, Arkansas voting rights activists could breathe a sigh of relief.

But their peace didn’t last long.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge swiftly appealed the ruling. And on April 4, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the laws. In a state that had the lowest voter turnout in the nation during the 2020 election, advocates are concerned these policies will only make participation worse.

And Arkansas isn’t alone.

A number of states that have passed new voting restrictions in the past year—including Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana—have primaries this month. Their outcomes will serve as the first big test of the impact of new voting restrictions enacted following the 2020 election and former President Trump’s election hysteria. …

Indiana, which holds its primary on May 3, has a strict set of requirements for who can vote by mail, limiting it mostly to people who are disabled, elderly, or without any transportation to the polls. By adding extra requirements to the process, voting-rights activists fear Hoosiers will give up on the option. For folks that can’t physically cast their ballots in person, that could mean giving up on voting altogether.

“It takes us in the wrong direction. It’s another way to confuse voters to put additional obstacles in their way,” Common Cause Indiana executive director Julia Vaughn told The Daily Beast.