DALLAS — Voters in Texas face among the most obstacles in the U.S. to cast a ballot, a new academic study says.
Texas ranks 46th in the country for voting access, falling one spot since 2020. Voting access refers to how easy it is to register and to vote.
Only four states — Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi and New Hampshire — rank below the Lone Star state. Among the easiest places to vote are Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Hawaii and Colorado.
The rankings are part of the 2022 Cost of Voting Index, a nonpartisan study that aims to quantify the cost of voting in terms of time and resources.
This year’s index is the first since Texas and other states passed a flurry of new election laws following the 2020 election. But state election law maneuvering has done little to appease voters on either side, the study’s authors wrote.
“Many of the new laws are unnecessary, lack substance, and create confusion,” the study says. “Many county election officials are scrambling to keep up with the changes.”
Researchers focused on 10 categories, including registration, inconvenience, early voting, poll hours, absentee voting and ID requirements.
The bottom line: “Voting is still not easy in Texas.”
Yes, Texas does allow a full 13 days of early voting, more than most, researchers noted.
But the state has some of the toughest restrictions on mail-in ballots of absentee voting. Only people 65 or older, those who are sick or disabled, out of the country, expected to give birth near Election Day or confined in jail are eligible.
Also, the state banned practices that made it easier to vote in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including drive-thru and 24-hour voting.
Those bans will limit the state’s ability to respond to another health crisis, the authors wrote.
Texas also makes it more difficult to register to vote than most other states.
The state is one of only eight that does not provide online voter registration. And it requires voters to register at least 30 days prior to Election Day, the longest period allowed by federal law, a length matched only by Ohio.
This year’s index does not capture all new election laws, however, including Texas Senate Bill 1 that gave partisan poll watchers more autonomy inside polling places by granting them free movement.
“We will wait to learn more the effect election interference laws have on the cost of voting after these have been in place for at least one election cycle,” the authors wrote.
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