Making it Easy to Vote Has Never Been More Important

Amidst the shockwaves of the Callais ruling, it’s easy to discount the power of a single vote. Yet individual participation in elections is only more consequential in its wake. When voter turnout is especially high, aggressive gerrymandering has been known to backfire, and the midterms will shape everything from future redistricting to state voting rights acts. What’s more, continued efforts to reduce participation in elections–from the SAVE Act to targeting voter registration drives–make clear that keeping certain Americans from the polls remains a core voter suppression tactic.

Today, Equal Futures is releasing new data on voting rights across all 38 Organization of Economic Development (OECD) countries. We’ve looked systematically at each country’s laws as they pertain to voter registration, election timing and scheduling, paid time off for voting, early voting and voting by mail, and eligibility to vote during and after incarceration, among other policies. As we previewed yesterday in Democracy Docket, altogether, the findings illustrate that the US lags behind its peers in taking basic steps to remove barriers to voting. For example:

• Unlike 82% of OECD countries, the US does not automatically register voters nationwide.

• Unlike 79% of OECD countries, the US neither schedules Election Day on a weekend or public holiday by law nor provides paid time off for voting.

• Unlike 71% of OECD countries, the US does not protect against the long-term loss of voting rights for people who have been incarcerated.

Altogether, the US stands alone among OECD countries in having no nationwide protections for automatic registration, paid time off to vote, election scheduling on a weekend or public holiday, early in-person voting, standardized poll hours, or widely available postal voting.

Taking even a few of these steps would markedly increase access to the vote overall and reduce gaps in participation across socioeconomic status, age, race, and other demographics. For example, past estimates suggest that automatic registration would add 50 million voters to the rolls if implemented across all US states, with particularly large impacts for young voters. Meanwhile, paid time off for voting would have broad benefits for all–given that work conflicts are one of the most commonly cited barriers to voting–and disproportionately improve access by low-wage workers, with outsized impacts on Black and Latinx workers due to underlying inequalities in the labor market.

Aside from being common sense, these proposals are popular. Recent polling finds that 83% of Americans think voting should be “as easy as possible,” while 76% support early in-person voting, 70% support automatic registration for all, and 59% are in favor of universal mail-in voting. More fundamentally, Americans view access to the vote as core to citizenship: 93% regard voting as an “essential right.”

Without a doubt, designing a fair, truly representative electoral system does not end with improving individual access to the vote. The fallout from the Callais ruling–and the redistricting wars that will only further intensify in its aftermath--underscore the need to explore more systemic reforms, such as proportional representation.

We also need to give more people something to vote for. Americans across the ideological spectrum, especially younger voters, have reported feeling disillusioned by the political process. Restoring citizens’ faith that the government can and will take actions that meaningfully improve the conditions of their lives–including by addressing the affordability crisis–is a prerequisite to fostering a thriving and genuinely inclusive democracy. One important step toward this goal is reducing the influence of corporate money on politics. States like Hawaii and Montana are pioneering a new approach to effectively overturn Citizens United by redefining what a corporation is under state law.

At a time of immense threats to voting rights in the US and elsewhere, the need for defense is urgent. But we also need creative thinking and an affirmative vision of what comes next. Nearly every other high-income country has taken important steps to make voting easier for all, as have a range of states. Removing barriers to participation for all eligible voters–regardless of where they live–should be foundational to rebuilding our democracy.

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