Partisan Predispositions and Public Support for Making It Easier to Vote

We explain how partisanship affects support for, and opposition to, low-visibility convenience voting reforms. We find state-level factors such as quality of polling-place voting and party polarization explain some variance in support.

However, individual-level factors are paramount. Attitudes about election reforms are strongly conditioned by partisan predispositions, with Democrats more supportive and Republicans more opposed. In addition, we find younger people, those with lower incomes, nonvoters, and people with disabilities were more likely to support proposals that might make voting easier.