» When it comes to having restrictive rules on voting, Texas now is ranked No. 1.
As millions of voters pour into polling stations across the state, a new study has found Texas has the most restrictive voting process in the country, up from No. 46 in 2016.
The findings — from researchers at Northern Illinois University, Jacksonville University and Wuhan University in China — looked at dozens of election laws to rank each state according to the time and effort it takes to vote in a presidential election.
It includes both registering to vote and casting a ballot.
Texas was rated highest for both the time and cost of voting. In particular, the state doesn’t have widespread online voter registration, limits mail-in voting, closes registration a month before Election Day and has cut the number of polling stations in some areas by more than 50 percent.
Other factors that limit access include staunch voter ID laws and minimal early voting options.
“State policies that impact the cost of voting are not the only factors that influence turnout, but they are arguably the most efficient way to alter the overall difficulty of voting for citizens, which is a major reason whywe see variations in turnout from state to state,” said Michael Pomante, a political scientist at Jacksonville University who specializes in voter behavior.
The same study four years ago ranked Texas as the fifth-most restrictive state, behind Mississippi, Virginia, Tennessee and Indiana.
Researchers said Virginia has markedly improved access to voting since then by passing an automatic voter registration law, getting rid of its in-person registration deadline and making Election Day a state holiday, among other steps.
Oregon, Washington and Utah topped the 2020 list. Each state has a permanent mail-in voting process.
Texas Republicans widely have opposed measures to increase voting access, claiming without evidence that they could lead to voter fraud. In Harris County especially, state and party leaders have attacked recent efforts by the county clerk to increase turn
out.
Several counties already appear to have shattered previous early voting records in Texas. Early voting opened on Tuesday — early voting was expanded by six
days by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in response to the pandemic.
The researchers noted there’s no systemic evidence to to suggest ballot-stuffing or voter impersonation are major concerns.
They estimated that improving the ease of voting nationwide potentially could boost presidential election turnout from an average of about 55 percent to more than 65 percent.