Expanded Access To Voting Yielded Huge Turnout. Will States Take It Away?
Voting experts say it's not easy to remove options once they've been given to voters. But the fraught politics around alleged "fraud" complicate the outlook for coming elections.
Jennifer Morrell understands more than most that when voters experience new ways to vote, it's not easy to take them away.
When Morrell was overseeing elections in Utah's Weber county, it offered what was going to be a one-time, all-mail election to decide a library bond issue.
"People were surprised at turnout, I do remember that," said Morrell, now an elections consultant.
For the following election, a municipal race, the county went back to its standard model. People called her office flabbergasted.
"Voters were saying, 'You mailed me a ballot over the summer! Why didn't I get one now?'" Morrell said. "There were enough calls that we took note. It wasn't just a few calls."
Utah is now one of a handful of
