Note: The following remarks were delivered by Cille King, LWVK co-president and member of the LWVL-DC board, at the LWVK Convention 2021.

I'm going to talk briefly about four topics:

1. Findings from the November 2020 elections
2. HR1 – For the People Act
3. New Kansas voting bills that have just been vetoed by the Governor
4. What the League might do in 2021-2022

Several records were set in 2020

Perhaps you are familiar with NonprofitVote.org. This organization has published an analysis for the November 2020 election. The NonprofitVote report includes information from Pew Research, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Brennan Center For Justice, FairVote, Vote.Gov, Common Cause, and several articles of investigative reporting.

For the first time in the United States, more people voted with mail-in ballots or early in-person voting than voted on Election Day.

• 70% (111 million people) voted by mail or early, versus 30% who voted in-person on Election Day. Convenience was listed as the major reason.
• In 2016, only 40% voted by mail or early.

National voter turnout was 67% of eligible voters, the highest in 120 years.

• 120 years ago, In 1900, 74% of eligible voters turned out. That was before we had the expansion of the electorate with women's suffrage, the Voting Rights Act, and lowering the voting age to 18.
• All 50 states increased their turnout in 2020 over 2016 with a total of 23.8 million more voters.

There are still wide differences in voter turnout between states that make it easier or harder to vote.

• The top-10 states averaged 17 percentage points higher than the bottom 10. Minnesota led the way with 80% voter turnout. Oklahoma was at the bottom with 55% turnout. Kansas ranked 31st in voter turnout − with 65.9% of eligible voters – voting.
• All of the top-10 turnout states did either one or both: They sent all their voters a mail ballot and/or they had Same Day Registration. No policy had a greater impact on increasing voter participation than proactively mailing all voters a ballot. Five states proactively mailed ballots to all registered voters, and another three states allowed counties to choose to send all voters ballots. Same Day Registration is allowed by 24 states plus the District of Columbia.
• Eight of the bottom-10 turnout states did either one or both: They cut off voter registration four weeks before the election and/or they required an excuse to use a mail ballot.

State turnout is impacted by competition and the Electoral College

• The two major candidates made 98% of their limited campaign visits and spent the bulk of their campaign money in the 14 battleground states.

NonprofitVote tracked a number of benefits of voting at home:

• All demographics benefited, but those least likely to vote had the highest growth.
• Down-ballot races had more responses with mailed ballots.
• Most states have tracking technology to let voters know the location of their ballot at each stage in the voting process.

NonprofitVote also tracked benefits to Same Day Registration, which has been tested for more than 40 years and is likely to increase voter turnout by 3 to 7 percentage points.

• In general more than half of Same Day Registrations are updates (change of name, address, etc); they are not new registrations.
• No eligible voter is turned away by fixable voter registration issues.
• This safeguards voters if they were removed from the voter roll, so they can still re-register.
• Increases accuracy of registration rolls as these are overseen by election officials and processed immediately.

Other policies that increase access to voter registration:

• Automatic Voter Registration, which is in 19 states.
  We would like this in Kansas. Once registered, the voter is more likely to vote and also to be contacted about voting by others.
• Preregistration for 16- and 17-year-old voters, which is allowed in 21 states.
  Kansas currently has pre-registration for 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the federal election. Where voters ages 16 and 17 may preregister, they are automatically registered at age 18 and eligible to vote.
• Online Voter Registration, which is available in 40 states.
  Kansas has a limited online registration, but the process needs to be updated for use on cell phones. Online registration makes it easier, especially for more mobile and younger voters to keep their registration up-to-date. Costs in Arizona went from 83 cents per paper registration to 3 cents per online registration.

For the People Act

I hope all of you are familiar with HR1, For the People Act. It passed the U.S. House in 2020, but was placed in Mitch McConnell's dead pile in the Senate. It passed the House again in 2021, and is now in the Senate as S1.

The For the People Act — HR1 and the same bill, S1 — is an expansive, 800-page bill. It does a number of great things, setting the floor for voting rights in the United States. It sets redistricting guidelines to reduce gerrymandering. It reduces dark money in politics and sets ethics requirements.

All of the provisions in the For the People Act, have been implemented at some level of government in some U.S. location — so all have been tested. This is a critical bill in stopping state voting suppression bills, making fair redistricting maps, and providing requirements and ethics reforms for voting and donations.

Even though both Kansas senators, Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall, have said they are against S1, please call, email or write their offices to say that you want it passed.

Recent Kansas voting bills

You are also probably familiar with the Kansas Legislature's attempt to make voting harder with HB 2183 and HB 2332. Thankfully, the Governor vetoed these bills and several other bills yesterday. We need to continue to tell our Kansas legislators that we want the Governor's veto to stand.

What may be ahead for Kansas Leagues

Our Kansas League will continue to pay for Vote411.org for this year's local elections in League counties and a few other counties. Please make sure to ask your candidates to fill out the Vote411 questions that will come out after the June 1 filing deadline.

For the Aug. 2 primary next year, we have the constitutional amendment on the ballot, which would take away women's constitutional rights to bodily autonomy. The League has a history of providing the facts on constitutional amendments and other ballot questions. So, we hope to have a robust campaign to spread the facts, in all ways possible — flyers, yard signs, billboards, social media and word of mouth. Your help with next year's campaign is appreciated.

Read More

America Goes to the Polls 2020, Policy and Voter Turnout in the 2020 Election [https://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2021/03/america-goes-polls-2020.pdf]