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Freedom to vote

Credit: Melissa Gerr
Credit: Melissa Gerr

Since the huge voter turnout in 2020, many states are making it harder to vote: Dozens of new laws restrict who can vote; and how, when and where they can do it.

University of Baltimore law professor Gilda Daniels, author of Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America, says she’s not surprised.

“It is consistent with history. Which is that we have these cycles of progress, and they are met with these almost violent attempts of regression in regards to the right to vote.” 

The odds are slim the Senate will pass the proposals it’s debating to set national standards for elections. But Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes, sponsor of a bill at the center of the fight, says he still hopes the debate will impel a couple colleagues to move to his side.

Links: Brennan Center for Justice Voting Laws Roundup, Bill H.R. 1 Freedom to Vote, Maryland Voter Registration.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'