Every Vote Counts

According to my online voter registration page, I have been registered to vote in the Charleston South Carolina County constituency since 2003. The first presidential election I could vote in was Bush v. Gore in 2000. I registered in Massachusetts, where I was at university. I went to rallies and explored the notion of ‘not wasting a vote’ in a non-swing state, debating with friends whether to vote for Ralph Nader to help him towards the 5 per cent of the popular vote the Green Party needed to qualify for federal funding in the next collection (he didn’t make it).

I moved to the UK the following year and have lived here ever since, but I’m still a US citizen, eligible to vote in US elections. My absentee ballots have been registered according to my last residence in the US, my parents’ house in South Carolina. The procedure has always been the same: send an email to the Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, who have always been responsive and friendly (even when I had trouble logging in because I kept entering my birthday the wrong way round, having lived in the UK so long). The ballot paper used to be emailed to me as an attachment, and in 2020 I even cast my vote electronically.

But last month, when I applied for my ballot by email, I received the following reply:

Due to a decision made by the South Carolina State Election Commission, absentee application requests can no longer be done electronically (online, by fax or email). To request an absentee ballot application a voter must now do so by phone, mail or in-person.

I read it again: yes, they were telling me that voting has become more difficult and inconvenient than four years ago.

According to a report published in May by the Brennan Center for Justice, ‘voters in almost half of the country will face new voting restrictions in the upcoming general election.’ Voters in 28 states will face restrictions that weren’t in place in 2020. Ten states passed laws shortening the application window, five shortened the postal or absentee window, twelve stiffened the in-person ID requirements – the list goes on (reducing the number of ballot boxes, making it easier for private citizens to challenge other people’s eligibility to vote etc).

Non-traditional voting is no small issue. According to the US census, 69 per cent of the fifty million people who voted in 2020 cast their votes early or by mail. It was a pandemic year, but even so that’s a significant shift from 2016, when the figure was 40 per cent. The demographics most likely to have voted by mail in 2020 include the over-65s, those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, women and non-Hispanic Asians. Some states, such as Washington and Oregon, sent all registered voters a postal ballot and saw over 95 per cent of votes come from non-traditional methods (compared to 15 per cent in Alabama).

The new voting restrictions in place this year don’t only affect people like me who live abroad: the elderly, the infirm, people with transport issues, those who live furthest from polling stations or can’t take polling day off work are also more likely to be disenfranchised. Alabama has passed a law that makes it a criminal offence to submit a ballot on someone else’s behalf (there are exceptions for voters who require assistance, but the law is vague on what that constitutes and what help can be offered). As the BCJ report says, broad interpretation of the Alabama law ‘could impose criminal penalties for providing a postage stamp or gas money to a neighbour who distributes absentee ballot applications’. Similar restrictions were imposed in Idaho.

An earlier report from the BCJ outlined the voting restrictions’ impact on communities of colour. In Indiana, a new law will make it harder for recently naturalised citizens to vote. West Virginia doesn’t allow registration for those with out-of-state driving licences (which makes it hard for students as well as new arrivals). North Carolina has removed the three-day grace period for accepting postal votes (in the mid-terms, more than 8600 absentee ballots arrived during that window.)

On the other hand, eleven states have passed laws to make voting easier. Some of the most expansive legislation has been passed in Virginia, Washington and Oregon (all considered blue states). The restriction v. expansion seems to fall largely along party lines, though Trump’s own view on postal votes has changed since 2020: where he once blamed them for losing him the election, Republicans have since identified how important for them the non-traditional votes are.

Americans abroad (and at home) need to check the restrictions that might be in place in their states and request their ballots in plenty of time. Don’t think your vote doesn’t count. In 2000, Bush v. Gore was determined by a recount in Florida, where Bush won by just 537 votes.