Albert R. Hunt, Columnist

Voter-Suppression Tricks Are on the Ballot, Too

The secretaries of state elected this fall will set the rules that help determine who wins the 2020 presidential election.

October 24, 2018 at 1:30 PM UTC

By Albert R. Hunt

Albert R. Hunt is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.

Building barriers.
Photographer: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

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Most Democratic operatives can easily identify their party’s congressional and gubernatorial candidates. But even the most plugged-in ones would probably draw a blank at the mention of Katie Hobbs, John Barrow, Kathleen Clyde or Jocelyn Benson. Yet their electoral fate on Nov. 6 has an important bearing on the next presidential contest.

These four Democrats are candidates for secretary of state: Hobbs in Arizona, Barrow in Georgia, Clyde in Ohio and Benson in Michigan. They’re all running on a promise to undo voting restrictions that Republicans have imposed.