Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion: Virginia and many other states have quietly

made voting easier
Opinion by James Hohmann
Columnist

July 1, 2021 at 12:44 a.m. GMT+3

45

As Virginia state Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond) thumbed through her deceased father’s Bible earlier this
year, a receipt slipped out, in the amount of $2.12. That was how much her father had to pay to be allowed to vote
in 1948.

It took another 16 years, and a constitutional amendment, to end the Jim Crow tactic of poll taxes. This year, amid
a lot of talk about whether new voting restrictions amount to Jim Crow 2.0, Virginia — one of the final five states to
impose a poll tax — has taken a different turn.

Pushed by McClellan and other Black lawmakers, the commonwealth has transformed itself from one of the hardest
places to cast a ballot in America to one of the easiest. On Thursday, most elements of a first-of-its-kind, state-level
Voting Rights Act will go into effect.

The measure underscores a happy reality: Restrictive voting laws receive the most attention, but the news is not all
bad. In fact, Virginia is among a majority of states that have quietly made the ballot box more accessible this year.

The nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab tabulates that 28 states have passed 71 laws since last November’s election to
make voting easier, which will benefit 63 million eligible voters, while 18 states have passed 31 laws during that
time to erect barriers, affecting 36 million eligible voters.

The group calls this “a tale of two democracies” and warns in a new report: “Increasingly, one’s ZIP code
determines a citizen’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to vote.”

The Justice Department sued Georgia last week to block its controversial new law. Republican-controlled states
such as Florida, Iowa and Arizona have passed bills that will make it more difficult to vote, and battles over
restrictive measures continue to rage in Texas and elsewhere.

On the other hand: Nevada recently joined the growing roster of states that will automatically mail ballots to active
voters in future elections. Maryland created a permanent absentee voter list. Connecticut and New York are poised
to amend their state constitutions so people can vote by mail without an excuse. Indiana and Kentucky, both of
which are red states, have expanded ballot drop-off locations and made it easier to correct errors on mail-in ballots
that would otherwise be invalidated.

Voting-related measures seem increasingly unlikely to garner enough votes to break a filibuster in an evenly divided
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Del. Marcia S. “Cia” Price (D-Newport News), the lead House sponsor of the Virginia law, lamented the patchwork
of protections. “As a Black woman, understanding that ‘state’s rights’ might actually help Black people is just
bizarre,” she said.

The new law is intended to repair the damage done by the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling eviscerating Section 5 of the
1965 Voting Rights Act, which required certain states with a history of voting discrimination to obtain preclearance
for changes in voting rules. That opened the floodgates to restrictive legislation, including a voter-ID law in Virginia
that Democrats repealed last year. Other states purged voter rolls and closed polling places in minority
communities.

Among other things, Virginia’s new law prohibits localities from changing the location of a polling place without
advance public notice or approval from the state’s attorney general. It also makes it easier for individuals to bring
lawsuits alleging voter suppression and for prosecutors to bring voter intimidation charges. Every Republican
legislator opposed the bill, saying it creates unnecessary burdens for local election officials.

The General Assembly and Gov. Ralph Northam (D) previously enacted 45 days of no-excuse early voting, made
Election Day a state holiday and enacted automatic voter registration for every Virginian who gets a driver’s license.

McClellan discovered her father’s poll tax receipt on Jan. 5, the night Georgia elected its first Black senator and the
eve of Congress counting the electoral votes that would make Kamala D. Harris the first Black vice president. It was
a feel-good moment, but the mob that stormed the Capitol the next day tempered her enthusiasm, offering a fresh
reminder of the historic willingness of some White people to use violence to achieve what they cannot secure
peacefully.

McClellan will continue to represent Richmond, once the capital of the Confederacy, in the state Senate after losing
the Democratic primary for governor three weeks ago. During an interview this week, she drew a direct line from
the Lost Cause narrative after the Civil War to “the big lie” after the 2020 election. “Think of history as a roller
coaster,” said McClellan, whose great-grandfather had to take a literacy test and convince three White people to
vouch for him to be able to register to vote in Alabama in 1901.

McClellan sees the restrictive voting laws being passed elsewhere as a response to gains African Americans such as
her have made in states such as Virginia. “It’s the latest wave in a vicious cycle,” she said. “These are the same
arguments my great-grandfather heard.”

Read more:

Henry Olsen: Swing voters are flashing warning signs to Democrats

The Post’s View: These Republicans knew the ‘big lie’ was absurd. What does that say about the rest of their party?

Jennifer Rubin: The Supreme Court will soon rule on a controversial voting-rights case. Here’s what to look for.

The Post’s View: If Republicans block a compromise voting-rights bill, reform the filibuster

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