Elections

Barriers to the Ballot Box

The novel coronavirus has fundamentally shifted the way many Americans vote: Local election officials, in the name of safety, have closed thousands of polling places and encouraged voting by mail. But since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision to weaken major protections in the Voting Rights Act, polling place closures and changes have affected equal access to the ballot for communities of color. A project of the Center for Public Integrity and Stateline. Stateline is an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts.