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Two Americas Emerging: Voting Rights in the States

In the nearly one year since the November 2020 elections, the diverging directions state legislatures took on expanding or contracting voting rights created a huge fault line in American democracy, described by some as ‘two Americas’. A Voting Rights Lab tracking report as of September 13, 2021, identified 27 states representing 70 million voters that had passed laws to expand voting opportunities, and 13 states with 55 million people that had passed sharply restrictive legislation. And state legislatures were still at work. What’s causing this divergence?

How are voting rights advocates advancing their work in such disparate political environments? What does it mean for upcoming elections and the future of American democracy? Join the Ash Center as voting advocates from two key states that have gone in opposite directions and policy experts evaluated the trends, discussed the present, and looked into the future.

Speakers include:

  • Mimi Marziani, President and CEO Texas civil rights project
  • Henal Patel, Director of the Democracy & Justice Program, New Jersey Institute of Social Justice
  • Randy Perez, Program Director, Voting Rights Lab
  • Jake Grumbach, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington
  • Miles Rapoport, Ash Center Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy, Moderator

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