A group of state lawmakers on Wednesday met to develop policy proposals they say will promote voting rights as part of a 50-state effort aimed at enacting laws that expand voting and push back against laws the say restrict access to the polls. The Washington meeting of the left group American Values First’s Voting Rights Project was the first gathering of the task force that launched this summer. On Wednesday, the group identified areas it says states can improve on voting rights and that it will advocate for, including allowing registration on Election Day, online and pre-registering students, expanding early voting, distributing locations of polling places, including on college campuses, and reducing long lines at them, offering voting by mail and expanding absentee voting. The idea, the group says, is to create strategies that can be deployed in each state.
“One of the keys to this is the fact that the effort itself is tailored with the understanding that each state is different and there are different nuances in state law and the challenges are different as well,” the group’s president, Michael Sargeant told POLITICO. “It’s critically important that American public has the opportunity and the right to vote, and unfortunately we’re in a position in history where those rights are being rolled back in many, many states.”
The moderator of Wednesday’s discussion, Georgia state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, said the project is both about fighting for new laws and fighting against what the legislators see as a nationwide growth of restrictive measures.
“The mission is two-fold: To lift up voters and expand voting rights, and the second is to fight back against this onslaught that seeks to restrict access to voting, because it is a fundamental right and privilege and we should not be making it harder for voters to have access to the ballot,” Abrams told POLITICO.
Full Article: Group plans voting rights push – Tal Kopan – POLITICO.com.