Editorial: Virginia leading the way to make voting accessible

As valid concerns about the integrity of this year’s election ripple across the country, Virginia residents should take some measure of pride that the commonwealth is not among those states expecting problems.

Sure, it’s possible that things could go sideways — that’s always the case, in every election — but reforms passed by the General Assembly earlier this year will make voting here easier and safer than ever before.

That’s great news for Virginia voters, and should serve as a blueprint for access and participation other states would do well to adopt.

For years, Virginia found itself listed among the states where voting was most narrowly restricted. In 2018, researchers at Northern Illinois University ranked the state second in the nation, behind only Mississippi, in what they called a “Cost of Voting Index.”

Described as “the largest assemblage of state election laws,” the scholars evaluated “the time and effort it took to vote in each presidential election year from 1996 through 2016,” and examined “33 different variables dealing with registration and voting laws, with differences in registration deadlines carrying the most weight.”

It’s a far cry from the days of poll taxes, reading tests and other measures meant to deter participation, especially by Black residents, but it still served to hold down turnout and deter people from going to the polls.

That changed dramatically this year.

Virginia voters handed control of the legislature to Democrats, who used the new majority to expand access to the franchise and lower barriers to voting. Eligible residents who intend to cast a ballot still have to clear some hurdles to do so, but they are no longer excessively adversarial.

Measures signed in April by Gov. Ralph Northam include the expansion of no-excuse early voting to begin 45 days before an election, eliminated the photo ID requirement for casting a ballot and lengthened the absentee voting period.

The legislature also designated Election Day as a state holiday, replacing Lee-Jackson Day on the commonwealth’s calendar, and implemented automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles, streamlining that process.

Lawmakers also passed a bill extending voting by one hour, so that polls will close at 8 p.m. rather than 7 p.m., but the General Assembly must approve that again in 2021 for it to become law. The polls will close this year at 7 p.m. as always, with those still in line at that time allowed to cast a ballot.

As a result, voters across the commonwealth flooded early voting sites when they opened on Sept. 18. According to figures reported by the Virginia Public Access Project on Wednesday, some 131,531 Virginians have already voted in person and 25,885 have returned mail-in ballots.

Another 888,885 Virginia voters have requested mail-in ballots but have yet to return them. According to reporting this week, more than 220,000 of those requests are in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th congressional districts.

Those figures dwarf the same figures from four years ago and portent the likelihood of record participation in this election. It also holds that the greater the share of eligible voters who cast a ballot, the more reflective the outcomes are of the popular will.

None of these are particularly new or radical ideas for inviting more people into the voting process.

Oregon, for instance, mails a ballot to every voter and has done so for more than 20 years. Early voting sites have been the norm in North Carolina for years. An Election Day holiday makes practical sense for families juggling jobs and kids and other obligations.

Yet, in Virginia, such ideas have long been rejected. In fact, lawmakers moved in recent years to restrict access rather than expand it.

It’s exciting to see that era come to an end in the commonwealth, and to see Virginia leading the way in making voting easier for more who wish to cast a ballot. Other states would do well to follow suit.

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