Presidential Preview: Voting rights

In advance of the 2024 presidential election, The Chronicle is breaking down each candidate’s stance on priority issues, examining their platform and political history to keep voters in the Duke and Durham community informed. In this edition, we take a look at voting rights:

The issue of voting rights has gained increased prominence as advocates and lawmakers grapple with questions of election integrity and recent attempts at voter suppression.

A Gallup poll conducted in September 2024 identified democracy as the second-most pressing issue on American voters’ minds, behind only the economy. Roughly 85% of respondents viewed democracy as either “extremely important” or “very important” in their presidential candidate choice.

Nationally, polls have shown a partisan divide on policies of no-excuse absentee and early voting. While 82% of Democrats and 60% of voters overall approve of the practice, per a July report from the Pew Research Center, only 37% of Republicans share the same view.

Major party nominees Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have vastly different viewpoints and track records on voting rights. Trump has supported restrictions he contends will protect election integrity, while Harris has promised to expand access to the ballot box and combat laws she considers restrictive or discriminatory.

Here’s what you should know about their platforms and records.

Recent changes to voting laws

Voting laws have changed dramatically over the last 11 years. 

The Supreme Court has ruled on several voting rights cases in recent years, upholding some of the newly implemented voting laws while striking down others.

In Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (2021), the Court upheld Arizona laws that restricted where voters can return absentee ballots and prevented others from submitting them on a voter’s behalf.

The court also upheld some congressional maps that contained evidence of gerrymandering while requiring others to be redrawn.

In 2019, the court ruled that federal courts had no jurisdiction over partisan gerrymandering, but later decided in Allen v. Milligan (2022) to reject an Alabama map that did not include a second plurality- or majority-Black district, concluding it was a racial gerrymander. In doing so, the Supreme Court protected Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars discrimination in voting on the basis of race, language or color.

The court later ruled in May that Louisiana had to use a court-drawn map with an additional majority-Black district in 2024, overruling a lower court’s decision that viewed the map as a racial gerrymander.

Voting rights in North Carolina

An April High Point University poll reported that 65% of registered voters in North Carolina say protecting democracy is a “very important” issue this election cycle. An October poll by Marist showed that 26% of N.C. voters put voting rights as their top issue, second to inflation at 32%. Respondents were evenly divided on whether Trump or Harris would be better at preserving democracy, with both nominees polling at 49%.

North Carolina has a statewide voter ID mandate, which requires voters to present photo identification to cast their ballot. The law has been hotly debated since 2013, when it was first passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

In 2016, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law as unconstitutional. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz argued that the law’s “provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” A study conducted in 2023 by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland found that eligible Black voters are likely to not have an accepted photo ID at disproportionately higher rates than eligible white voters — 28%, compared to 18%.

The law also included stipulations that reduced the early voting period, eliminated same-day voter registration and banned pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds. All three restrictions affected measures shown to increase turnout among youth and Black voters.

Voter ID reappeared in 2018 as a constitutional amendment ballot measure that was passed by North Carolina voters.

In 2019, the Wake County Superior Court issued an injunction temporarily blocking the measure from going into effect, ruling that the law was discriminatory. In 2022, the Democratic-majority N.C. Supreme Court ruled in Holmes v. Moore that the photo ID law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the state constitution by disproportionately impacting Black voters.

In 2022, two Republican justices were elected to the state Supreme Court, giving the GOP a 5-2 majority. The new bench reheard the case and reversed the decision in 2023, concluding that challengers failed “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the law “was enacted with discriminatory intent.”

Today, voters unable to present an acceptable form of photo ID at the ballot box can cast a provisional ballot. Provisional ballots are returned to the voter’s county board of elections, where staff research the voter’s eligibility, and election results are not finalized until the status of provisional ballots is determined.

Rejected provisional ballots have caused issues for some voters, including students in North Carolina who have moved from out of state.

Voters without an acceptable form of ID face a further complication. In 2023, the General Assembly passed a law to eliminate a three-day grace period after the election during which the Board of Elections could receive ballots. This grace period was intended to account for postal delays and give voters extra time to vote.

Senior Chloe Decker, student chair of Duke Votes, said provisions regarding valid North Carolinian voter identification have made “voting at Duke more confusing than would be preferable.” For example, current sophomores and transfer students were not given physical DukeCards at the beginning of last school year, which would meet North Carolina’s voter identification requirement. Duke began distributing ID-only cards to affected students in September.

“I've been involved with Duke Votes now for the last four years, and there are definitely more steps in that voting process than there were when I was a freshman,” Decker said. 

Duke’s mobile student ID was not approved as an acceptable voter ID. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s mobile version of student ID was approved in August, but the decision was later reversed after Republicans sued.

The North Carolina Board of Elections, in charge of balloting for the 2024 Election, is attempting to debunk election fraud claims magnified by rhetoric from Republican candidates at state and federal levels.

On its website, the board shares several resources that explain safeguards put in place to ensure election integrity, including voter ID requirements, cybersecurity measures and election audits. The website also encourages concerned citizens to get involved in election observation efforts by becoming precinct officials or election workers.

Kamala Harris

Harris has routinely called for greater legal action against voting restrictions.

During her tenure in the Senate, Harris cosponsored several election security bills, including the bipartisan Secure Elections Act, which would have strengthened election infrastructure cybersecurity requirements; the Redistricting Reform Act, which would have required congressional maps in all states to be drawn by independent redistricting commissions or a panel of federal judges; and a bill barring the Census Bureau from including citizenship information in redistricting data.

She also backed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would have expanded voter access on tribal lands and established new preclearance requirements, and the Native American Voting Rights Act, which would have provided more resources for voter outreach and language assistance, increased voter registration locations and improved polling site accessibility.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she introduced the VoteSafe Act in May 2020, which would have expanded mail-in voting and in-person early voting for the 2020 federal elections. The bill included nationwide legalization of ballot curing, opening mandatory ballot drop-off boxes 45 days before Election Day, a mandate for states to send out mail-in ballots to all voters who request one and a requirement that polling stations adhere to COVID-19 public health guidelines.

None of these bills became law.

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris pledged to “rebuild the foundation of our democracy” by taking on voter suppression — particularly practices discriminating against Black, Latino, Native American and young voters. Her platform also included a promise to appoint Supreme Court justices who would back voting rights protections.

As vice president, she has been a vocal proponent of voting rights, supporting in particular the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the Freedom to Vote Act and the updated Native American Voting Rights Act.

The Freedom to Vote Act would make Election Day a federal holiday, require no-excuse mail-in voting, expand the types of acceptable voter ID, establish automatic voter registration, allow ex-felons to vote and require same-day voter registration.

In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration made a significant push in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, although only 48 senators — all Democrats — voted to move the legislation forward.

The year before, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14019, which worked to support federal agencies in providing non-partisan voter registration opportunities. 

If elected president, Harris has promised to see the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed, even if it requires an exception to Senate filibuster rules.

Donald Trump

Trump’s voting rights agenda has centered on preserving election integrity and combating voter fraud through stricter regulations.

In 2018, Trump issued an Executive Order to address foreign interference in American elections following concerns of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election. The order gave executive departments more power to conduct analyses of information suggesting any foreign interference in the weeks following an election. It has since been upheld by the Biden administration.

As another effort to address inconsistencies in the 2016 election, in 2017, Trump established the bipartisan Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which was intended to review claims of voter fraud.

Some states submitted voter data to the commissions, which caused security and privacy concerns and led to some voters canceling their registration. Lawsuits regarding a lack of transparency and improper handling of personal information ensued, and in 2018, Trump dissolved the commission, citing a lack of state cooperation in providing voter data.

A July 2019 Executive Order aimed to ensure that undocumented immigrants were not counted in U.S. Census population totals, which would affect the apportionment of congressional districts following the 2020 census. The Supreme Court then blocked the order, ruling that the administration did not have the authority to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Trump opposed state measures to expand vote-by-mail programs and other methods of remote voting. Trump’s efforts were heavily supported by the Republican National Committee, as many pandemic-era voting measures were expected to benefit Democrats in the election.

Trump’s criticism of voting processes intensified following the 2020 election. After current President Joe Biden was declared the winner, he repeatedly claimed the election was “stolen.”

On January 6, 2021, during the official count of the electoral vote, Trump called on congressional leaders to object to election results and for then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the vote. Notably, a group of his supporters organized an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to attempt to prevent the vote from being counted.

Three hours into the demonstration, Trump called on his supporters “to go home” after repeated pleas from his staff and family members. Despite efforts to stop the count, Pence and Congress ultimately certified the presidential election with Joe Biden as the winner.

Trump initiated lawsuits against election officials in states around the nation and pressured local officials to take action to overturn election results. The lawsuits addressed topics such as mail-in voting, noncitizen voting, illegal collection of ballots and rigged voting machines, many of which were based on falsehoods.

Only one of Trump’s lawsuits was initially successful. The Pennsylvania case concluded that people “curing” their ballots, or fixing problems when a ballot is rejected, need to submit a photo ID, but the ruling was eventually overturned by the state’s Supreme Court.

In his 2024 platform, Trump promises to “secure our elections, including [by implementing] same-day voting, voter identification, paper ballots and proof of citizenship.”

Recently, Trump has changed his rhetoric around absentee ballots, especially following the destruction caused in western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene, historically a heavily Republican area. He has called for the expansion of early and absentee voting opportunities 

The former president has also frequently claimed that widespread illegal voting fraud by undocumented immigrants occurs in the U.S., though research has shown that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare.

Other candidates

Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s platform seeks to abolish the two-party system by implementing ranked-choice voting for all elections, instituting public financing of elections and putting an end to discriminatory voting laws.

Independent candidate Cornel West supports establishing Election Day as a national holiday, making absentee voting available to all voters, expediting same-day voter registration and implementing ranked-choice voting.

Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver promotes a “Voter Bill of Rights.” He advocates for lower barriers to appearing as a candidate on the ballot, fair congressional districts, increased election transparency, allowing non-incarcerated citizens with a criminal record to vote, no restrictions on requesting an absentee ballot and encrypted voter software to ensure safe elections.