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1 Wendy Weiser & Max Feldman, The State of Voting 2018 1 (2018)

handle is hein.brennan/sttvtng0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The State of Voting 2018 by Wendy Weiser and Max Feldman Introduction This fall, voters will head to the polls for the first time since our presidential election was decided by a margin of just 80,000 votes across three states. Clearly, every vote counts. Nevertheless, on November 6, voters will face serious challenges to making their voices heard at the ballot box. These obstacles include voter ID laws and curbs on early voting. Extremely gerrymandered electoral maps and unresolved concerns regarding foreign interference in our elections also undermine the free and fair vote that is essential to our democracy. As in previous election years, the Brennan Center has been tracking not just the laws but the political forces that may impact this year's midterms. In 2018, voters in at least eight states will face more strin- gent voting laws than they did in the last federal election. These restrictions are a continuation of a trend, beginning in 2011, of states passing laws making it harder to vote. Overall, voters in 23 states will face tougher restrictions than they did in 2010. Lawsuits and legal campaigns have in some cases mitigated a number of the most pernicious new laws, and future court decisions could still impact the voting landscape before November. Regardless, more voters in more states will face unnecessary hurdles to casting a ballot this fall. Restrictive laws, however, are not the only challenges to the vote. The electoral landscape is still highly skewed by gerry- mandering. Earlier in the decade, partisan legislatures drew extremely gerrymandered legislative maps, using modern data and technology to manipulate electoral lines for political advantage. The resulting maps have tilted electoral outcomes, producing dramatic incongruities between what voters want and what they get out of their elections and making it difficult to hold representatives accountable. Despite recent legal victories against political and racial gerrymanders, most of those flawed maps will still be in place in November. In addition, nearly three-quarters of Americans are worried about foreign interference in our elections - worries that could create a crisis of legitimacy. The story is by now well-known: Agents connected to the Russian government targeted election systems in 18 states in 2016, and the threat hasn't dissipated. State actors and even rogue hackers continue to have our election systems in their sights. Still, there is reason for optimism. Voters and their allies have taken to the courts to throw out unfair laws. Lawsuits challenging skewed legislative maps have recently resulted in a wave of victories, and for the first time in decades, the Supreme Court is set to rule in a case that could put real limits on partisan gerrymandering. Lawmakers and government officials are waking up to the fact that our election systems are vulnerable and that they can and must be repaired. 1 I BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE

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