NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) released a 67-page report Tuesday detailing its findings from monitoring the 2022 US midterm election and showcasing strategies to combat racial inequality during upcoming election cycles. The report, entitled Democracy Defended, specifically focused on voter experiences in seven of the nation’s southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas.

The report highlights four top issues. First, the report states that “barriers for seniors and voters with disabilities, poor signage identifying polling locations, insufficient supplies of voting materials at polling locations, and technology failures” presented concerns regarding voting infrastructure and administration. Next, the report asserts that a “lack of mail-in and early voting options” contributed to “long lines and heightened opportunities for disenfranchisement” at the polls. Third, the report notes that poll workers at several locations “improperly restricted LDF monitors and other nonpartisan volunteers” seeking to monitor the polls, which runs contrary to standard electioneering rules. Finally, the report states that “many states failed to effectively communicate poll site information to voters” leading to confused voters and a lack of useable information “to track patterns of discriminatory changes and closure in Black communities.”

The report also includes separate state reports for each of the states included in the analysis. According to the state reports, 75% of voters who gave poll site reports in Florida indicated “no issues” with their voting experience, meaning that they did not encounter any barriers to voting. The poll site reports were not as positive in the six other states, with only 52% reporting “no issues” in South Carolina, 37% in Georgia, 32% in Louisiana, 30% in Texas, 23% in Alabama, and 16% in Mississippi.

Ultimately, the LDF made five broad recommendations to protect election integrity in 2024. Its recommendations include: (1) improving election infrastructure, (2) providing more transparency with poll site changes, (3) educating and mobilizing voters, (4) recruiting and training more poll workers, and (5) countering election sabotage.

According to a press release regarding the report, it was developed by “drawing on actual experiences, firsthand observations, and reports provided to the PTV/VRD [LDF’s Prepared to Vote/Voting Rights Defender project] staff.” The LDF previously published a similar report investigating election-related activities during the 2020 election. The LDF is a 501(c)(3) organization leveraging “law, narrative, research, and people” to “defend and advance the full dignity and citizenship of Black people in America.”