WASHINGTON – In Panama City, Florida, the League of Women Voters set up a face-painting table for children during community gatherings at the library. While the children were occupied, former chapter president Cecile Scoon said volunteers could chat up parents about registering to vote or voting by mail.
Then on early voting days in the fall, Scoon said the group would find a shady tree near the Glenwood Community Center polling place, to answer voters’ questions over grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. On a good day, there might be shrimp. Voters who couldn't break away from work could use Bay County's 24-hour drop box for receiving absentee ballots.
Such get-out-the-vote efforts are under threat by a new state law adopted after the 2020 election. Scoon, the League of Women Voters and other groups are challenging the law in federal court, arguing the measures make it harder to vote, especially for people of color.
They're part of an assembly of people across the U.S. challenging a wave of restrictive voting laws enacted this year in more than a dozen GOP-led states. The outcome of their cases could have major ramifications for the 2022 midterm and 2024 presidential elections.
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