The debate over voter access has erupted as a contentious issue in campaigns across the country just two days before Tuesday’s elections, with candidates trading accusations about threats to ballot integrity and reports in multiple states about voting irregularities.
As Americans cast early ballots at historic rates for a nonpresidential year, voters are heading to the polls deeply suspicious about the opposing party’s commitment to fair elections, new polling shows, further polarizing the electorate.
Apprehension about ballot integrity this year is reminiscent of the presidential election of 2000, when a divided nation watched a painstaking recount unfold in Florida to determine the race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, experts said.
Raising the stakes are dozens of closely contested races for the House, Senate and governor.
Worries about voter disenfranchisement have dominated the bitter race for governor in Georgia, where Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a leading advocate of strict voting rules, is overseeing his own race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is vying to become the nation’s first black female governor.
On Sunday, Kemp’s office accused the state Democratic Party of “a failed attempt to hack the state’s voter registration system” and opened an investigation after voting rights advocates reported a potential vulnerability in the state election system. Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the state Democratic Party, called the move an “abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State.”
Kemp’s office has not said when the alleged voter-registration hack attempt occurred or revealed any details.
The controversy threatened to further rattle voters caught up in disputes about the state’s handling of voter registration applications and absentee ballots.
“I have never questioned, before now, that my vote would count, and that anybody else who made a sincere effort to vote would have their vote counted,” said Whitney McGinniss, 35, a Democrat who works in public administration in suburban Atlanta, whose absentee ballot was challenged over a signature mismatch. “My opinion of that has really changed.”
In several battleground states, including Georgia, Nevada, Indiana and Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands of inactive voters have been removed from the rolls since 2016. Election officials have said the “list maintenance” comes after voters had not cast ballots in at least two federal elections, had moved or did not respond to information requests to verify their registrations. Voting rights activists are calling some of the activity improper voter “purges.” A federal appeals panel ruled last week that Ohio must allow thousands of voters removed from the rolls between 2011 and 2015 to vote provisionally Tuesday.
According to the Pew poll, 85 percent of Americans favor requiring electronic voting machines to produce paper ballot backups. At least a dozen states do not have that system.
Meanwhile, large armies of lawyers and other observers are being mobilized to monitor the polls Tuesday – and to be prepared for recounts and other legal action that could follow.
Political committees, individual campaigns and civil rights groups will all deploy monitors. Common Cause, the civil rights organization, for instance, helped recruit 6,500 monitors this year – double the number in 2016, a presidential election year.
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