在选举失利后，共和党急于实施数百项投票限制，与此同时，越来越多的州正在推进一个替代目标:让投票更容易。
在共和党人正在缩减全国范围内的投票权限，并因开创了一个“新时代”而受到民主党人的谴责之际，这一努力可能看起来像是一个局外人种族隔离。“在前任总统之后唐纳德·特朗普他的盟友散布关于2020年的谎言选举据无党派人士称，截至3月24日，至少有361项旨在限制投票的法案被提出布伦南正义中心。
但是，争取扩大投票站准入的呼声并不少见。事实上，至少47个州的立法者提出了800多项法案来扩大投票权。
由于全国似乎在选举规则上严重分裂，在特朗普国家的中心，一个红色州似乎是迄今为止唯一的例外。
肯塔基州议员同意了两党合作和适度扩张投票权，结合一些新的限制来解决选举安全问题。与2020年的选举相比，民主党州长安迪·贝希尔(Andy Beshear)周三签署的新法律对谁有资格通过邮件投票设置了更严格的限制，但它也为提前投票提供了三天的时间，建立了投票中心以增加亲自投票的选择，并为选民创建了一个在线门户网站以请求邮寄选票。
贝希尔在签字仪式上承认，他更希望该法案走得更远，但在一个投票规则仍然相对严格的保守州，他宣布该措施是民主的重要一步。
他说:“当全国大部分地区出台更严格的法律时，肯塔基州的立法者和肯塔基州的领导人能够团结起来捍卫民主。”。
上个月，在州参议院通过选举法案后，肯塔基州共和党国务卿迈克尔·亚当斯在前往州长办公室之前接受采访时表示，他的家乡州应该成为双方的典范。
“在某些情况下，共和党人对安全问题目光短浅，不考虑准入方面。在某些情况下，民主党人对准入持短视观点，不关心安全方面，”他说。“关键是你需要同时解决这两个问题，这就是我们在肯塔基州所做的。”
正如布伦南中心民主项目顾问伊莱扎·斯温-贝克尔(Eliza Sweren-Becker)所说，尽管投票权已经成为一个“党派政治足球”，但专注于扩大投票权的各州——即使是在不同的步伐和不同的基础上——反映了去年选举的成功。
在今年晚些时候举行选举的两个州，弗吉尼亚和新泽西在过去几周，立法者颁布了一项扩大投票权的法案，将自己定位于2020年后加强投票和准入的运动的前沿。
在弗吉尼亚州，民主党州长拉尔夫·诺森(Ralph Northam)本月早些时候签署了一项全面的立法，该立法效仿了最高法院于2013年否决的1965年联邦投票权法案。
这项名为弗吉尼亚州《选举权法案》的新法律禁止压制选民、歧视和恐吓，要求选举官员就任何拟议的投票改革寻求公众反馈或总检察长办公室的事先批准，并允许选民在压制选民的情况下提起诉讼。
“当其他州威胁投票权时，弗吉尼亚迈出了重要的一步...该法案的主要支持者之一、今年竞选州长的民主党人、州参议员詹妮弗·麦克莱伦(Jennifer McClellan)在诺森签署该法案时表示。
她还将这项立法视为给英联邦带来“代际变化”的努力的一部分，同时在周二晚上的辩论中与她的四名民主党对手一起出现。
这项法律只是弗吉尼亚州民主党人一系列策略中的最新一个促进参与民主进程。自从2019年在国会两院获得多数席位并加深了英联邦的蓝色调以来，民主党已经取消该州的选民身份法，制定45天无借口缺席投票，将选举日定为国家假日，通过机动车辆部实行自动选民登记，并延长亲自投票时间。
周四，诺森称赞州议员让“弗吉尼亚成为我们的联邦，我们的进步州。”
弗吉尼亚也许是一个区域性的异常，尤其是像佐治亚这样曾经组成邦联的其他州都同意的新的更严格的选举规则。格鲁吉亚新的有争议的选举改革引入了更早的缺席申请截止日期，要求缺席投票的选民身份，并对投递箱施加了比2020年更严格的限制，以及其他规定。它还增加了第二个强制性的周末提前亲自投票日。
在更北的地方，新泽西州州长菲尔·墨菲(Phil Murphy)是一名民主党人，他在上个月晚些时候签署了两项允许提前亲自投票的法案，要求所有21个县指定3到7个投票点进行提前投票，并呼吁各县确定投票箱的位置，以使投票更加公平。
在一个由民主党人控制、注册民主党人人数是共和党人近两倍的州，投票权的提高可能并不出人意料，但这显然与各州的努力背道而驰，主要是在全国范围内太阳带向相反的方向移动。
“我不能忽视这个提前投票的法案通过我们的立法机构的同一天，总督格鲁吉亚正在签署一项法律限制格鲁吉亚人的投票权，”墨菲在一个虚拟的签字仪式上说，旁边是斯泰西·艾布拉姆斯，前格鲁吉亚议会少数党领袖和著名的投票权倡导者。
艾布拉姆斯领导了民主党在佐治亚州长达十年的基层基础设施建设工作，他称赞该法案是“这个国家相信它所支持的民主，或者更重要的是，相信它所庇护的人民的又一个遗迹。”
“当每个声音都被包括在内时，我们永远是一个更强大的国家。这就是这项工作如此重要的原因，”她补充说。
How some states are expanding voting rights amid sweeping push to restrict access
The GOP's rush to impose hundreds of voting restrictions in the aftermath of a bruising electoral loss comes as a burgeoning number of states are pressing ahead with an alternative ambition: making voting easier.
The effort might seem like an outlier at a time when Republicans are scaling back voting access across the country and being condemned by Democrats for ushering in a new era of "Jim Crow." In the aftermath of former PresidentDonald Trumpand his allies spreading falsehoods about the 2020election, at least 361 bills aimed at restricting ballot access have been introduced as of March 24, according to the nonpartisanBrennan Center for Justice.
But the push to embrace broadening access to the voting booth isn't few and far between. In fact, lawmakers in at least 47 states are putting forward more than 800 bills to expand the right to vote.
As the nation seems bitterly fractured over election rules, in the heart of Trump country, one red state appears to be the lone exception so far.
Kentucky lawmakers agreed on abipartisan and modest expansionof voting rights, melded with some new restrictions to address election security. The new law, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday, sets tighter restrictions on who is eligible to vote-by-mail compared to the 2020 election, but it also provides three days for early voting, establishes vote centers to increase options for casting a ballot in-person, and creates an online portal for voters to request mail-in ballots.
Beshear acknowledged at the signing ceremony that he preferred for the bill to go even further, but in a conservative state where the voting rules still remain relatively stringent, he heralded the measure as a significant step for democracy.
"When much of the country has put in more restrictive laws, Kentucky legislators and Kentucky leaders were able to come together to stand up for democracy," he said.
In an interview last month after the state Senate passed the elections bill, but before it headed to the governor's desk, Kentucky's Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams argued that his home state should be a paradigm for both sides.
"The Republicans, in some cases, have a myopic obsession with security and don't think about the access side. Democrats in some cases have a myopic view about access and don't care about the security side," he said. "The key is you need to address both at the same time, that's what we did in Kentucky."
Even as the right to vote becomes a "partisan political football," as Eliza Sweren-Becker, who serves as counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center, said, the states focusing on expanding voting rights -- even at different paces and on different footing -- reflect the successes seen in last year's election.
In two states with elections later this year,Virginia and New Jersey, lawmakers enacted an expansion of voting rights in the last few weeks, positioning themselves at the fore of a post-2020 movement to strengthen voting and access.
In Virginia, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam signed sweeping legislation earlier this month modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was struck down in 2013 by the Supreme Court.
The new law, named the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, prohibits voter suppression, discrimination and intimidation, requires election officials to seek public feedback or pre-approval from the Attorney General's Office on any proposed changes to voting and permits voters to sue in cases of voter suppression.
"While other states are threatening voting rights, Virginia took a major step ... to protect the right to vote," state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, one of the bill's chief sponsors and a Democrat running for governor this year, said when Northam signed off on the measure.
She also cast the legislation as part of an effort to bring "generational change" to the commonwealth while appearing alongside her four Democratic rivals at a debate Tuesday night.
The law marks only the latest in a series of maneuvers by Democrats in Virginia tobolster access to the democratic process. Since gaining a majority in both chambers of the General Assembly in 2019 and deepening the commonwealth's blue hue, Democrats haverevokedthe state's voter ID law,instituted45 days of no-excuse absentee voting, made Election Day a state holiday, implemented automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles and extended in-person polling hours.
On Thursday, Northam extolled state lawmakers for making "Virginia the commonwealth that we are, the progressive state that we are."
Virginia is perhaps a regional anomaly, particularly as other states that once made up the Confederacy, such as Georgia, approvenew and more rigid election rules. Georgia's new and controversial elections overhaul introduces an earlier absentee application deadline, requires voter identification for absentee voting and imposes more stringent limits on drop boxes compared to 2020, among other provisions. It also adds a second mandatory weekend day of early in-person voting.
Further north, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed into law a pair of bills late last month that allows for early in-person voting, mandates all 21 counties to designate between three and seven polling locations for early voting and calls for counties to determine drop box locations to make access more equitable.
Improving voting rights in a state controlled by Democrats and home to nearly twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans may not be unexpected, but it overtly runs counter to efforts in states, largely across theSun Belt, that are moving in the opposite direction.
"I cannot overlook this early voting bill passed our legislature the same day that the governor ofGeorgia was signing a lawrestricting the rights of Georgians to vote," Murphy said at a virtual signing ceremony, alongside Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia state House and a prominent voting rights advocate.
Abrams, who helmed a decade-long effort to build out Democrats' grassroots infrastructure in Georgia, celebrated the bill as "one more vestige of the country that believes in the democracy it espouses, or more importantly, that believes in the people that it shelters."
"We are always, always, a nation stronger when every voice is included. And that is why this work is so critical," she added.
