A New York Times report in late April said that a majority of those who used late-night voting were people of color, and that the voting hours expansion was targeted by a bill in Texas' GOP legislature to be barred from future elections. The Times linked to a tweet thread from the Texas Civil Rights Project, which said "56% of voters who voted during late-night hours were Black, Hispanic, or Asian. " Data proves these options offered by @HarrisVotes were popular with voters AND made voting more accessible for everyone."
How reliable is this claim, which is drawn from data from TargetSmart, a Democratic political data firm, according to an attribution on the Texas Civil Rights Project's tweets? Their raw data is one source among many that is being compared and studied by academics, said Stein, whose students are working on papers about Harris County's voting using data from TargetSmart and other data firms. But that research will not be done before Texas' legislature likely passes its 2021 voting reforms, he said.
The 2020 election shows that if politicians give voters more accessible options, some of those options will be used. But beyond the broad trends, the scale and impact may not be quickly known as they pertain to deregulating specific prior mail-based and early voting regimes, and newer accessible options.
That absence of definitive research has not stopped partisan Republicans bent on rolling back last fall's array of voting options. But it has given a few Republicans pause and led to some of the most draconian proposed rollbacks to be deleted from bills. Many GOP legislators know that their party's impulse could backfire, as their base, not just Democrats, took advantage of various voting options.
"Once you give voters opportunities to do things, you can't pull them back," Stein said. "Their concern is not whether Democrats will vote with [reinstated] voter ID or [more limited] early voting, but whether their voters will show up."
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