Most say federal rules are necessary to ensure equal voting access — CBS News study

Most Americans decry the politicization of election and voting rules in the U.S., but at the same time, they echo the partisan rhetoric around voting access and security. And they differ in how much involvement they think the federal government should have in how states run elections.

As some state legislatures enact voting restrictions, and Democrats in Washington push for legislation increasing federal oversight of states' voting rules, a majority of Americans feel such oversight is indeed necessary today to make sure minorities have the same access to voting as White people do. But fewer think it's necessary today than when they look back at the 1960s. The debate over federal oversight of the voting system echoes the debate over equal access in the 1960s. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act expanded federal oversight of state elections with the aim of reducing racial disparities in access to voting. At the time, about three in four Americans supported the law, according to a 1965 Gallup survey.