Assuring all citizens access to the ballot box was once within living memory a bipartisan pursuit. The landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prohibit racial discrimination passed Congress with a decisive majority. In subsequent years, Congress easily passed laws to improve access to the polls for the disabled and for soldiers and citizens living overseas. In the 1990s, it easily passed the Motor Voter Act that required state motor vehicle offices to offer voter registration.
The explicit goal of these laws was to increase the number of registered voters…
