Some states are making it harder to vote, some are making it easier '“ but it's too soon to say if this will affect voter turnout in 2022

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Nancy Martorano Miller, University of Dayton (THE CONVERSATION) There’s been a good deal of crying foul about what are being called anti-democratic new state laws that make it harder to vote. But it turns out such laws might have little impact on voter turnout and vote margins in an election. That’s according to a February 2022 analysis by Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter that provides nonpartisan election analysis. The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the past century, with 66.8% of citizens 18 years and older voting in the election. Robust voter turnout could be the difference maker in the 2022 midterm election. Voter turnout for midterm elections is typically lower than for presidential elections. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for grabs during the election. Democrats hold slim majorities in both chambers. If Republicans are able to increase the number, they will likely flip control of both chambers in their favor. As a political scientist, I study state voting and elections rules. Voting is important to a healthy democracy because it is how we consent to being governed and let elected officials know what policies we want. Voting laws also protect against voter fraud. Thanks to these laws, election fraud in the United States is very rare and typically has no impact on the election outcome. Sometimes these rules can create burdens for citizens who want to vote. This can lead to citizens’ losing trust in their government. Citizens’ losing trust in the government can be harmful to our democracy. It is too soon to say the full effect that these new voting laws will have in shaping the 2022 elections. New laws might not make voting easier or harder During the 2021 legislative sessions, 36 states adopted legislation that change the way citizens vote. Most of these recent laws don’t make voting easier or harder. They make the process easier for the state and local officials who run elections. For example, a new law in Utah improves communication between the Social Security Administration and election officials to ensure that dead voters are removed from voter registration lists. States making it harder to vote Nineteen states, meanwhile, enacted 33 laws that can make it harder for Americans to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In Texas, for example, a 2021 law requires voters to provide part of their Social Security or driver’s license number on their mail-in ballot request. The number must match the one voters used when they registered to vote. Two million registered voters in Texas lacked one of the two numbers in their voter file that they gave when they registered to vote. A large number of mail-in ballot requests for Texas’ March 2022 primary have been rejected because of this change. Texas has also limited the hours for early voting locations and banned the popular trend of drive-through voting. In Georgia, voters requesting absentee ballots must now provide a photo ID when they request a mail ballot and when they return it. Georgia also joined Texas, Iowa and Kansas in passing a law forbidding county and state election officials from automatically sending mail-in or absentee ballot requests to registered voters. In some cases, things are getting easier Twenty-five states, meanwhile, have passed 62 laws since 2020 that could make voting easier.