I'm Lee Rowland.

From the ACLU, welcome to At Liberty, the podcast where we discuss the most pressing civil rights and civil liberties topics of our time.

Today, voting rights in the midterms.

We are on the cusp of a consequential midterm election, and all eyes will soon be on the results.

In the lead-up to election day, voting rights advocates have been working furiously to ensure

that result will be the product of a free and fair election.

To get us as close as we can to a nationwide election where everyone eligible to vote can vote,

and that everyone who does vote casts a ballot that counts.

Today, we're delighted to welcome Dale Ho, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, back into the studio.

Dale is one of these Guardians of Democracy working behind the scenes to make sure that your vote counts.

He's here to give us the latest on the state of the vote, and he'll walk us through the biggest voting rights, challenges, and successes playing out in these midterms.

Dale, thank you so much for coming back to talk to us.

Thank you so much.

We're sitting here less than a week out from the elections.

Are we going to see a free and fair midterm election? Well, we definitely have more controversies

at the last minute with respect to voter access this year than in any election that I can remember

with perhaps the exception of the 2012 election when really this whole wave of activity trying to make

registration harder, trying to cut back on early voting, trying to make it harder to vote on

election day, really began. That period, 2011, 2012, saw more than two dozen restrictions on

voting enacted before the presidential election.

And, you know, I remember that time.

And I remember it being a mad scramble.

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