Voting Law Changes in 2012 Ahead of the 2012 elections, a wave
of legislation tightening restrictions on voting has suddenly
swept across the country. More than 5 million Americans could be
affected by the new rules already put in place this year — a
number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last
three presidential elections. In October 2011, this report was
the first full accounting and analysis of this year's voting
cutbacks. Click here to read an up-to-date summary of both the
bills that have been proposed and the legislation that has been
passed since the beginning of 2011. Over the past century, our
nation expanded the franchise and knocked down myriad barriers
to full electoral participation. In 2011, however, that momentum
abruptly shifted. State governments across the country enacted
an array of new laws making it harder to register or to vote.
Some states require voters to show government-issued photo
identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten
voters do not have. Other st