Credit: By Jen Rice Democracy Docket
Governors in two key swing states are weighing far-reaching voter suppression measures passed by GOP lawmakers.
Although voting legislation in the most closely watched states has so far generated less attention than in recent cycles, the newly passed bills are a reminder that, these days, the Republican drive to make voting harder rarely lets up.
Voting advocates including the ACLU of Wisconsin and All Voting Is Local are asking Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) to veto legislation that would make it harder for people convicted of felonies to regain their voting rights after completing their sentences.
And Gov. Katie Hobbs of Arizona (D) is being called on to block a measure that would shorten the early ballot dropoff deadline by four days, as well as limiting the number of ballot drop-off locations, among other steps.
Neither Evers nor Hobbs has commented on the bills, and neither office responded immediately to inquiries from Democracy Docket. But both have vetoed restrictive voting laws before.
The Wisconsin bill – passed on party-line votes by the GOP-controlled legislature – would require people with felony convictions to pay all fines, costs, fees and restitution before they’re allowed to exercise their right to vote.
Nearly 9% of the Black voting eligible population in Wisconsin is disenfranchised, according to the Sentencing Project’s 2024 Locked Out report.
Marianne Oleson, operations director for the nonprofit group EXPO Wisconsin, which stands for EX-Incarcerated People Organizing, describes the measure as a poll tax.
“It perpetuates keeping people like me from actually reentering and being part of our communities,” Oleson told Democracy Docket. “I have no say over the pothole in front of my driveway. I have no say over the school board where my grandchildren go.”
After being convicted of seven non-violent felonies, Oleson said she was sentenced not only to seven years of incarceration, but a very lengthy period of extended supervision. Though she’s been home from prison for over eight years, she said she won’t be able to vote until 2042.
The bill could push back that timeline even further for many Wisconsinites.
Part of EXPO’s work includes reaching out to people when they’ve completed supervision and helping them get registered to vote. Oleson said her group often hears about problems processing payment for fees or restitution.
“We’re very concerned that individuals are going to complete supervision and believe that they’re able (to vote) and all of a sudden there’s going to be fees from time spent in jail or fees incurred from medical expenses while in prison that are going to come back and haunt them,” Oleson said.
Oleson said she and other advocates are urging Evers to veto the bill rather than create another hurdle for people who are trying to reenter their communities.
“Individuals who are allowed to vote – I cannot stress enough – are better neighbors, are better coworkers, are better friends, are part of our community,” Oleson said.
The measure advanced with little discussion in an Assembly committee hearing in March.Brittany Vulich, campaign manager with All Voting is Local Action Wisconsin, told lawmakers the bill would make the right to vote dependent on financial means.
“We can ensure victims get the restitution they are owed without tying that to a returning citizen’s right to vote,” Vulich said.
“Wisconsin already has legal tools and processes to enforce restitution orders. This bill adds nothing but a political talking point at the expense of fundamental rights.”The Republican committee chair, rather than address concerns about the bill, instead subjected Vulich to a series of questions aimed at delegitimizing her organization.
The Wisconsin measure echoes a Florida law passed in 2018, after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment automatically restoring voting rights – a change state legislators immediately raced to undo.
They quickly passed a law requiring people to pay off their legal financial obligations before they could regain voting rights, significantly undermining the will of the voters.Still, Floridians with felony convictions were in a better position than they were before the amendment passed, when the state policy was permanent disenfranchisement — though it was no thanks to the legislature.
But in Wisconsin, requiring payment before restoring voting rights is an unequivocal step backwards. Currently, Wisconsin is one of 15 states that automatically restore voting rights at the completion of a sentence, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Meanwhile, Arizona voting rights advocates are alarmed by a bill that would give voters less time to drop off an early ballot, moving up the deadline from 7 p.m. on election day to the Friday before.
Nearly two-thirds of voters in Arizona, where mail voting is extremely popular, don’t want the deadline to change, including 62% of Republicans, according to a poll from Secure Democracy USA.
The bill would reduce the number of drop-off locations, as well, giving voters fewer options for returning their ballots. The bill “does more harm to Arizona voters than it supposedly seeks to remedy,” the group All Voting Is Local Action wrote in a letter to Hobbs.
Late Update, 7/2: Hobbs vetoed the Arizona election bill.
Jul 2, 2025
