California and Texas, Super Tuesday's biggest prizes, offer a study in contrasts over voting
1 / 6ELECTION 2020 SUPER TUESDAY VOTING RIGHTSIn this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, Wesley McCandless cast his ballot at one of the voting centers in Sacramento, Calif. Sacramento County is among the 15 counties in the state that have replaced traditional polling places with multi-purpose"vote centers" where people who live anywhere in the county can vote early, drop off ballots or register to vote.
The two Super Tuesday giants illustrate how the ability to easily register and cast a ballot depends in many ways on where voters live. In the last presidential election four years ago, 75% of registered California voters participated. In Texas, it was 59%. Story continuesCalifornia also is one of 14 states where teenagers can pre-register to vote once they turn 16. Texas is among the most restrictive, allowing teens to sign up only two months before they turn 18, the national voting age.
Officials in Texas, as in other states with policies that make voting more difficult, say the changes are intended to address voter fraud, a problem much discussed but with relatively few actual cases. Many of the Texas measures also have been put in place since a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that undid a key provision of the 1964 Voting Rights Act.
Last year, the Legislature considered a bill that would have made it a crime to put incorrect information on a voting application, even by accident. The bill passed the Senate, but never got a vote in the House. Charlie Bonner, a spokesman for MOVE Texas, which focuses on registering young voters, said the measure would have been a major deterrent to groups like his if it had been signed into law.
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