Eighteen States Have Now Passed Election Reform Laws This Year

18 states enacted election reform measures this year, including bills to require voter ID, curb the controversial practice of ballot harvesting.

BY THE POLITICAL INSIDER STAFF
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

By Fred Lucas for The Daily Signal

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this week capped off a year of major election reforms across America by signing hotly debated legislation after a prolonged drama that saw Democratic legislators flee the state in a bid to prevent its passage.

Texas, with its Republican governor, is among at least 18 states to enact election reform measures this year, including bills to require voter ID, curb the controversial practice of ballot harvesting, and remove the dead and other ineligible voters from registration rolls.

Organizations that tallied the election changes include the National Conference of State Legislatures, a nonpartisan group representing state lawmakers, and the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal group opposed to voter ID laws and the upkeep of voter registration.

“State legislatures finally realized in many states that these holes and vulnerabilities that existed in the system for quite a while need to be fixed,” Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, told The Daily Signal.

“States like Texas, Georgia, Florida, and other places actually passed some good reforms to fix it,” von Spakovsky said.