Tuesday’s elections include several contests that have critical implications for the right to vote, including ballot measures where voters will directly decide whether to expand access to the ballot box, judicial races that will determine which judges one day rule on such matters, and elections for legislative and executive posts where officials will have the power to reshape voting laws. Below, we’ll preview three important states with relevant elections for voting rights and democracy: Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania.

• Virginia: Virginia voters will elect a new governor and all 100 state House seats, both of which have implications for voting rights. Former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe faces off against Republican Glenn Youngkin for governor, while Democrats are defending the 55-45 majority in the state House they first won just two years ago. Both sets of elections could determine how Virginia addresses felony disenfranchisement, while the legislative races in particular will be critical to the composition of the state Supreme Court.

When McAuliffe was governor in 2016, he used his executive power to end lifetime disenfranchisement for those convicted of felonies by restoring voting rights to people who had fully served their sentences. His successor, fellow Democrat Ralph Northam, continued that policy and earlier this year extended it to restore voting rights to everyone on parole or probation, enabling more than 200,000 people to vote. (Only those still in prison remain unable to vote.) Democrats also used their first legislative majorities in a quarter century, which they won in 2019, to pass a constitutional amendment that would permanently end felony disenfranchisement for everyone not in prison.

However, lawmakers have to pass that same constitutional amendment again after this year’s elections before it could go to voters for their approval, meaning Republicans would likely block the measure should they regain the state House. Furthermore, Youngkin could discontinue Northam’s policy of issuing executive orders to restore voting rights and even resurrect lifetime disenfranchisement by rolling back McAuliffe’s policies. Before McAuliffe’s executive orders, this remnant of Jim Crow had left one in five Black Virginians permanently banned from voting, five times the rate of whites.

In addition, Virginia (along with South Carolina) is one of just two states where legislators directly pick justices for state Supreme Court, which currently has a 5-2 conservative majority. Over the next two years, two justices—one conservative and one liberal—will see their terms come to an end, giving lawmakers a chance to reshape the court in either direction. Both chambers vote together when selecting justices, but with Democrats holding only a 21-19 majority in the state Senate (which isn’t up for election this year), Republicans would only need a small majority in the state House to outvote them.

Most importantly of all, Virginia Democrats made the most of their newfound power by passing a slew of voting and redistricting reforms over the last two years including automatic and same-day voter registration, a bipartisan redistricting commission, an Election Day holiday, expanded access to early and absentee voting, and much more. However, that progress would come to a dead halt if Youngkin and Republicans prevail on Tuesday.

• New York: On Tuesday, New Yorkers will have the chance to vote on three statewide constitutional amendments related to elections that would be the culmination of two years of Democratic efforts to turn New York from one of the worst states for voting access into one of the best since regaining full control over the legislature in the 2018 elections.

Proposal 3 would allow lawmakers to pass a same-day voter registration law—something currently forbidden by the state constitution—which Democratic leaders have said they’d go forward with if the amendment passes. Proposal 4, meanwhile, would remove the excuse requirement to vote absentee. Last year, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order that allowed any voter to cast an absentee ballot because of the pandemic, but the passage of Proposal 4 would lay the groundwork for the legislature to make excuse-free absentee voting permanent.

A third amendment, Proposal 1, would also enact several changes to the state’s redistricting laws that would diminish the sway Republicans have over the mapmaking process but would also enshrine a few nonpartisan requirements for future redistricting plans in the state constitution. New York currently has a convoluted bipartisan redistricting commission that recommends maps to the legislature, but lawmakers can ultimately override the commission’s recommendations and draw their own maps.

However, the poorly drafted 2014 amendment that created the commission makes it unclear whether legislators need a two-thirds supermajority or just a simple majority to override the commission when one party controls the legislature. The proposal on Tuesday’s ballot would require no more than a 60% majority to do so in any event. Democrats currently have two-thirds supermajorities in both chambers, though, meaning they may still have the votes to override the commission regardless of whether voters approve the newest amendment.

While the main purpose of this amendment appears aimed at solidifying Democratic control over redistricting, it does include some nonpartisan reforms. Those include enshrining in the constitution an existing statutory ban on "prison gerrymandering"; freezing the number of state Senate seats at 63; sharply limiting how cities can be split among Senate districts to prevent a repeat of the anti-urban gerrymandering that occurred when the GOP drew the lines after 2010; and authorizing the state to conduct its own census if a federal count is tainted.

• Pennsylvania: Keystone State voters will vote to elect a new state Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, when Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, a Democrat, will face off against Commonwealth Court Judge Kevin Brobson, a Republican, to succeed Republican Justice Thomas Saylor, who will hit the state’s mandatory retirement age in December. Democrats currently hold a 5-2 majority that could expand to 6-1 if McLaughlin prevails, which could help them maintain control for years to come.

Pennsylvania’s top court has been critical for voting rights and redistricting, having struck down the GOP’s congressional gerrymander and replaced it with a much fairer map in 2018. The justices also protected access to mail voting during the pandemic amid Republican efforts to restrict it. Barring unexpected vacancies, the soonest Republicans could take back the court would be 2025, but a win for Democrats on Tuesday would complicate that path and potentially push a possible change of control further into the future.