Nearly every state has changed its voting laws in some way since the last midterm election. In some states, these were minor amendments voters will not even notice. But in other states, the changes will require voters to adjust how they cast their ballots or significantly affect how election officials do their jobs — often in harmful ways. Some of the more significant trends since the 2022 midterms will bring new restrictions and risks to voters and election administrators. They include:   

• Changes to mail ballot deadlines: Six states enacted laws to stop counting mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day if they arrive afterward. A Kansas state court blocked the law from taking effect.
• Restrictions to voter ID: 13 states have limited the forms of ID voters can use or eliminated alternatives to showing identification
• Hunts for noncitizens on the voter rolls:  18 states have enacted laws meant to identify alleged noncitizens on their voter rolls. 
• Leaving ERIC: Eight states have left the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) since 2022, though Virginia later rejoined. Leaving ERIC has left local officials scrambling for other data sources to keep voter lists current. 

In this report, we take a closer look at seven states with closely contested statewide races this fall — Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — and examine how significant changes to election law in these states will affect how voters cast their ballots and how election officials do their jobs. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is plowing ahead with officially designating a leading Muslim civil rights nonprofit, a decentralized movement known as antifa, and more than 100 other groups as “domestic terrorist organizations,” in a move that critics are decrying as unprecedented and unconstitutional. 

DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted to advance the terrorist designations Tuesday, approving the proposal in just over 30 seconds and with no discussion, under a new state law that has alarmed free speech defenders, student advocates and people of faith. 

The legislation represents another expansion of Florida’s state security apparatus under DeSantis, who has opened pop-up immigration detention centers, re-established the Florida State Guard – of which he is the commander in chief – and created an investigative unit to probe alleged election crimes. The remarkable expansion of police powers has also funneled hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to state vendors, including Republican political donors.