1. People who don’t vote in an election are not just disengaged citizens. Five voter profiles describe the voter with no ID, the procrastinator, the student, the working parent and the convicted felon — all of whom face barriers to voting.
2. Developing secure mobile voting is complicated, and critics argue that current computer security capabilities cannot support it. Even so, some states are launching pilot tests of mobile voting in the hopes of increasing ballot access.
3. In an interview with NPR, Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman discusses high-profile voter restrictions heading into midterm elections. States that have become battlegrounds for voting rights include Georgia, where officials deployed aggressive voter suppression tactics, and North Dakota, where new voter ID laws disproportionately disenfranchise Native Americans living on reservations.
4. Other Republican-led efforts that will likely impede ballot access in the midterm elections include rising voter fraud prosecutions in Texas despite a lack of evidence that widespread voter fraud exists. Republicans have seized on registration errors produced by initiatives aimed at increasing voter registration to justify efforts that limit ballot access.