Voting Access
Barriers to voting remain high, particularly in Southern states.
State rankings based on Cost of Voting Index (COVI) scores
2022
As the nation prepares for the November midterm election, voters in many states will face new and increased barriers to casting their ballots. Southern states rank among the most difficult to vote, with South Carolina (43rd), Alabama (45th), Arkansas (48th), and Mississippi (49th) having some of the highest barriers to voting access.
In anticipation of the 2020 election and in response to the pandemic, nearly every state did something to make voting easier, such as temporarily expanding access to mail-in voting, establishing ballot drop-boxes, or increasing the availability of early voting.1 Voter turnout reached a record high amid an increase in new voters for both parties.2 However, since 2020, many states have reversed those temporary provisions and 21 states, including 6 Southern states, have since enacted restrictive voting laws.3 This year, Mississippians will face the second highest personal cost in the country in terms of the time and effort required to cast a ballot. The state has a longstanding legacy of disenfranchising Black voters and has failed to keep pace with reforms like early voting, online voter registration, no excuse absentee voting, and automatic voter registration, which have been adopted by other states.4,5
“Expanded Access To Voting Yielded Huge Turnout. Will States Take It Away?” Parks. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/937050893/expanded-access-to-voting-yielded-huge-turnout-will-states-take-it-away
“Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2020”. U.S. Census Bureau. April, 2021. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-585.html
“Voting Laws Roundup: October 2022”. Brennan Center for Justice. October, 2022. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2022
“UM Votes: Exploring the History of Voting Suppression in MS”. Mead. University of Mississippi. https://dce.olemiss.edu/um-votes-exploring-the-history-of-voting-suppression-in-ms/
“Cost of Voting in the American States: 2022*”. Schraufnagel, Pomante, and Li. Election Law Journal. September, 2022. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/elj.2022.0041
