{"id":217,"date":"2023-02-22T18:30:33","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/texas\/press-releases\/new-common-cause-report-texas-voters-faced-preventable-challenges-at-the-polls-in-2022\/"},"modified":"2023-02-22T18:30:33","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T18:30:33","slug":"new-common-cause-report-texas-voters-faced-preventable-challenges-at-the-polls-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/texas\/press\/new-common-cause-report-texas-voters-faced-preventable-challenges-at-the-polls-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"New Common Cause Report: Texas Voters Faced Preventable Challenges at the Polls in 2022"},"template":"","class_list":["post-217","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"New Common Cause Texas report on the 2022 election cycle details how Texas, one of the hardest states to vote in, fell short in serving voters\r\n","featured_image":"","press_type":153,"authors":[null],"related_issues":[108,117,406],"related_work":[119],"location":52},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"AUSTIN<\/strong> \u2014 Texas leads the nation in many ways when it comes to voting, coming in second in the country for both numbers of registered voters and the eligible voting population.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nBut that doesn\u2019t correspond with voter turnout, where Texas was ranked the 46th hardest state in the nation to vote in a recent \u201ccost-of-voting index\u201d compiled by political scientists at Northern Illinois University. In this past election, 9.6 million registered voters in Texas\u00a0 - more than the\u00a0 entire population of states like New Jersey or Virginia - did not exercise their rights to vote.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nThe reasons stem from the chronic underfunding of the state\u2019s election system and the waves of voter suppression laws in recent years that erected unnecessary barriers to voting, a new report<\/a> on election protection efforts in 2022 from Common Cause Texas found. The report\u2019s release comes as attempts to curtail some voters\u2019 access continue, with a<\/span> bill just introduced<\/span><\/a> in the Texas Legislature seeking to ban polling places on college campuses, making it even more difficult for young Texas voters to participate in elections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n\u201cTexas got it right when we wrote into our Article 2 of our State Constitution that \u2018all political power is inherent in the people,\u2019\u201d said Katya Ehresman, Common Cause Texas\u2019 voting rights manager<\/strong>. \u201cBut it\u2019s time to remind our Texas legislators of that fact, so they can dismantle the existing discriminatory barriers currently inhibiting voter turnout and return power to the people of this great state.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nCommon Cause Texas worked with partners in the Texas Election Protection Coalition running the 866-OUR-VOTE nonpartisan hotline in 2022. An analysis of the 5,700-plus calls that came over the year included:\u00a0<\/span>\r\n