{"id":82172,"date":"2026-07-01T22:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T05:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=82172"},"modified":"2026-07-01T22:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T05:39:48","slug":"voter-id-laws-redistricting-could-sideline-millions-before-midterms-advocates-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=82172","title":{"rendered":"Voter ID Laws, Redistricting Could Sideline Millions Before Midterms, Advocates Warn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Voters\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With the 2026 midterm elections months away, voting rights advocates warn that new voting laws and disputes over election processes could reduce participation among millions of minority, low-income, elderly, rural and first-time voters.<\/p>\n

A recent Supreme Court ruling,\u00a0Calais v. Louisiana<\/em>, has already prompted states across the South to redraw congressional district lines in ways that\u00a0eliminate majority-Black seats<\/a>. Meanwhile,\u00a036 states<\/a>\u00a0now require some form of ID at the polls, while local election battles that once seemed like regional issues are drawing national scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Weakened federal voting protections<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A 6-3 Supreme Court majority\u00a0ruling<\/a>\u00a0issued April 29 by Justice Samuel Alito struck down Louisiana\u2019s congressional map containing two majority-Black districts. Voting rights groups say the decision effectively guts Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) which prohibits voting procedures that dilute minority representation.\u00a0(Blacks account for more than 30% of the state\u2019s population.)<\/p>\n

The ruling\u2019s new standard requires plaintiffs to prove intentional racial discrimination \u2014 a nearly impossible burden compared to the previous standard of proving that a redistricting map gives Black voters less opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.<\/p>\n

In the weeks following the decision, several Southern states including Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina moved to redraw congressional maps \u2014 in some cases while mail-in voting for primary elections was already underway \u2014 explained Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), at a\u00a0June 26 American Community Media briefing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The changes have already eliminated \u201ca number of majority-Black congressional seats in the South,\u201d he continued. \u201cThis means that absent some huge wave of increased voting by voters of color, some of our long-standing Black congress members may lose their seats in November.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund\u00a0analysis<\/a>\u00a0found that up to 191 currently Democrat-held Southern state legislative districts could be redrawn as a result of\u00a0Calais<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 including 127 Black-majority districts, more than half of all Black-majority districts in those states.<\/p>\n

An earlier joint\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0estimated that the new Section 2 standard alone could secure 19 Republican House seats. Combined with Republicans\u2019 mid-decade redistricting efforts, the report projected a potential shift of 27 House seats \u2014 \u201cenough to cement one-party control of the U.S. House for at least a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the federal level, \u201cthe president of the United States has no authority to regulate elections,\u201d said Saenz. \u201cWithout congressional action \u2026 his executive orders have no effect. This is why Trump is pushing so hard now to get federal legislation to require voter ID, to restrict the ability to cast a remote ballot and the like, but it would require congressional action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millions without voting ID<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), discusses threats to election integrity.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a more credible near-term threat, he pointed to the\u00a0SAVE Act<\/a>, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, potentially stripping the effective ability to vote from the\u00a0over 21 million<\/a>\u00a0Americans who lack ready access to documents like a passport or birth certificate.<\/p>\n

While the act\u00a0passed the House<\/a>\u00a0April 10 on a vote of 220-208, with the support of all Republicans and four Democrats, Senate passage would require seven Democratic votes, a threshold few analysts expect it to reach.<\/p>\n

But even if passed, the measure could apply only to federal races, said Saenz, noting that implementing such a system nationwide would be \u201cexorbitantly expensive.\u201d It would also, he said, \u201cconsolidate federal with state and local elections in every state around the country,\u201d resulting in \u201ctwo sets of rules for one election.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Saenz, the \u201cgreater danger\u201d voters face is at the state and local levels. \u201cThe Supreme Court made Voting Rights Act challenges to such measures more difficult,\u201d he noted, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s important that people be prepared to have a voter ID. Even if [the ID requirement] is being challenged in court. It may or may not be resolved before the election comes around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly\u00a0half<\/a>\u00a0of Americans don\u2019t have a passport, including\u00a055% of registered Republican voters<\/a>;\u00a0nearly 21 million<\/a>\u00a0voting-age U.S. citizens lack a current driver\u2019s license; and\u00a0another 29 million<\/a>\u00a0have licenses that do not reflect their current name or address.<\/p>\n

Citizens of color are nearly\u00a0four times<\/a>\u00a0more likely than white citizens to lack a valid, unexpired state ID, with Black and Hispanic Americans disproportionately affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ever-changing landscape of voter ID laws creates confusion for voters, who will often stay home rather than face shame or get turned away or intimidated for potentially not having the correct form of ID,\u201d said Da Hae Kim, policy advocacy manager at national voting rights nonprofit\u00a0VoteRiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cost and access compound the problem.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Da Hae Kim, policy advocacy manager at VoteRiders, shares data on access to identification documents in the United States, including documentary proof of citizenship (DPOC).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a minimum wage job and it\u2019s $7.25 an hour, and you need to pay about $29 to get an ID \u2014 if it\u2019s a choice of putting food on the table or getting an up-to-date license \u2014 putting food on the table will likely take precedence,\u201d Kim said, adding that rural residents frequently lack transportation to the offices where IDs are issued, and that natural disasters like floods and fire can leave many voters without any identification at all.<\/p>\n

On the ground in Shasta County<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Annelise Pierce, founder and managing editor of the independent news service\u00a0Shasta Scout<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 which covers a deeply conservative, majority-white rural county about 2.5 hours north of Sacramento \u2014 brought these national dynamics into a community-level focus.<\/p>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Shasta Scout saw the county\u2019s\u00a0rightward political shift accelerate<\/a>, amplified by new leaders in local government.<\/p>\n

In early 2023, the county board\u00a0voted to cut short<\/a>\u00a0its contract with electronic voting company Dominion Voting Systems in favor of hand-counting \u2014 a move the state blocked that fall with a quickly passed\u00a0hand-counting ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The county registrar of voters, who oversaw 40 elections over nearly two decades, retired in mid-2024 \u201cdue to stress-related medical conditions, and eventually the board brought in a new registrar\u201d \u2014\u00a0attorney Clint Curtis<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who, Pierce said, \u201creally marched in rhythm with these election activist complaints and started implementing a lot of changes in local election procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among these changes was Measure B, brought forth by activists \u2014\u00a0some of them Curtis-appointed election staff \u2014\u00a0alleging local election fraud. The ballot measure, passed June 2, requires ID voting, eliminates most early voting, limits who can cast an absentee ballot, requires hand-counting of all ballots at the precinct level and severs local voter rolls from state oversight.<\/p>\n

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Annelise Pierce, founder and managing editor of Shasta Scout, discusses changes to Shasta\u2019s voting process and how they\u2019ve impacted access to voting and trust in elections.<\/em><\/p>\n

The state sued the county\u00a010 days later<\/a>, maintaining that implementing the measure would violate voting laws in California, a universal vote-by-mail ballot state. But in late June, an appeals court declined to review the suit, directing California to refile in a trial court instead and ahead of the county\u2019s July 2 primary certification date.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have to maintain two separate sets of voter rolls,\u201d Pierce said, \u201cone to comply with state and federal elections, and one for local elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pierce said the voting issues she has documented in Shasta have often stemmed less from deliberate intent than from inexperience and distrust of technology.<\/p>\n

Curtis\u2019 decision to eliminate electronic poll-pad check-in systems, for instance, produced long lines and \u201cactual disenfranchisement of voters because there were not enough line workers at the elections office to verify voters throughout the day,\u201d she explained. Poll worker training gaps, meanwhile, left many workers without adequate preparation to help voters with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Pierce noted that ahead of national midterm elections, Shasta County residents still don\u2019t know whether they\u2019ll need to show ID or have to vote in person, with only months remaining before voters head to the polls this November.<\/p>\n

\u201cElections are about process and policy, but also about optics and perception, so the voters\u2019 own trust in what they\u2019re seeing,\u201d she said, \u201cis an important part of whether or not people choose to engage in elections at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySelen Ozturk Jul 1, 2026 With...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82173,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82172\/revisions\/82173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}