State legislators, local administrators, and advocates must strengthen and clarify election processes, preempt disinformation, and enact stronger measures against intimidation.

For decades, the federal government used its grant-making power to spur states to incarcerate more people and to impose longer sentences. It should now use that power to reverse course.

To ensure that elections remain peaceful, states must ban guns at places where votes are cast and counted and enact stronger anti-intimidation laws.

The gap is increasing nationwide, especially in counties that had been subject to federal oversight until the Supreme Court invalidated preclearance in 2013.