Defending Democracy
Court rulings on “standing” help GOP to further entrench gerrymandered districts
North Carolina’s new voting district maps were hatched in a way that brings to mind Macbeth’s calculation as he ponders murder: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly: …” In other words, it’s a nasty piece of business but if it’ll solve the problem then just get […]
How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies
Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that the Biden administration had violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies to remove content, related both to elections and the COVID-19 vaccine, that […]
Worries over secrecy grow as state officials shield records from the public
Just weeks after lawmakers in Little Rock passed legislation shielding certain state records from public disclosure, opponents launched an effort to amend the Arkansas Constitution to protect access to government documents. “The coalition that’s coming together on this is about as broadly bipartisan as you could get — from the extreme, extreme right to the […]
Casualties of the culture wars
I don’t recognize North Carolina today. It is not the state I’ve loved and lived in all my life. We’ve changed from being “where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great” to a state where we select the ones we choose to hate. We are casualties of the culture war, both here and […]
Bookman: Unholy night – A Trump White House Christmas coup caper
It was a Christmas party at the Trump White House, and despite the festive decorations, the trees and the wreaths and the red-and-green bunting, the mood must have been grim. A few days earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had firmly rejected a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas seeking the overthrow of election results […]
State, local elections offer good news for democracy
The big news out of Tuesday’s elections was wins for Democrats and for reproductive rights in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. But small “d” democracy also had a good night: Virginians elected pro-voting majorities in both chambers, stymieing efforts to pass restrictive new voting laws. Ohioans turned out in large numbers to pass two popular […]
One year out: how a free and fair 2024 presidential election could be under threat
The last time America elected a president, it led to a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and a failed coup that gravely damaged the political system and marred the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in U.S. history. A year from now, the nation’s voters will decide another presidential contest — likely […]
‘Kraken’ Trump lawyer Sidney Powell flipped her plea to guilty in 2020 election RICO case
Texas attorney and North Carolina native Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election interference charges in Fulton County Superior Court on Thursday, one day before jury selection was scheduled to begin for her trial. As part of the plea deal, Powell was sentenced to six years of probation for conspiring to interfere with the performance of […]
A toxic combination of the shameless, delusional and opportunistic threatens our democracy
Donald Trump knows he did not win the 2020 presidential election. The man has long displayed a malignant and all-consuming narcissism, but he’s no dummy. Uttering statements and making claims that sound at least plausible to some and that he wishes in his heart were true (but that he knows to be false) has always […]
States that send a mail ballot to every voter really do increase turnout, scholars find
Lately, a rough consensus has emerged among people who study the impact of voting policies: Though they often spark fierce partisan fighting, most changes to voting laws do little to affect overall turnout, much less election results. But one fast-growing reform appears to stand out as an exception. When every registered voter gets sent a […]
Racial gerrymandering returns to U.S. Supreme Court. This time it’s South Carolina’s fight.
Civil rights groups will be closely watching the U.S. Supreme Court next Wednesday when the justices hear a challenge to South Carolina’s congressional redistricting map. In Alexander v. SC State Conference of the NAACP, the plaintiffs contend South Carolina’s legislature adopted a racially gerrymandered congressional map last year, moving hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians […]
North Carolinians plead for fair elections. State lawmakers will ignore them.
“Stop twisting our words.” That’s one of the messages that several North Carolinians delivered to Republican legislators at a trio of hastily called public hearings last week, as the General Assembly prepared yet again to adopt new maps for North Carolina’s legislative and congressional districts. That such a message was even necessary is an outrage, […]