Virginia has some of the highest barriers to voting in the country. Democrats in the General Assembly are passing bill after bill to tear those barriers down.

Democrats, who in last November’s elections gained control of both houses of the General Assembly for the first time in decades, are now advancing bills that would roll back the GOP’s potpourri of restrictions. Taken together, the legislation would simplify voting.

The bills would scrap requirements that voters provide justification if they want to vote absentee and extend the deadline by which ballots cast by servicemembers and other Americans overseas must be received. They would clear the way for same-day registration and voting; for automatically pre-registering teenagers starting at age 17; and for recognizing Election Day as a state holiday, which would make voting easier for state employees, among others.

In a democracy, legislation removing hurdles to voting should be noncontroversial — even in Virginia, where demographic change has been tilting the balance of power in Democrats’ favor for years.

That, of course — not the specter of virtually nonexistent voter fraud — is the real reason Republicans have strewn the path to the ballot box with impediments in recent years. Rather than modify their message, they have opted to suppress turnout by minorities, low-income residents and younger voters. Their strategy is an affront to democracy.

It’s time to tear down the barriers to voting in Virginia.

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