elections
Voting rights groups find new photo ID law caused trouble for voters and county officials
Judith Nash’s shaky handwriting on a voter ID exception form she filled out in Guilford County on Election Day is a sign of lost muscle control that comes with Huntington’s disease. A few days after she and her husband voted, Nash received an email from the Guilford elections office saying, essentially, they thought she was […]
Ballot bites: Politicos make final decisions ahead of NC candidate filing
Just days ahead of the opening candidate filing period, politicians are making their intentions known and trying to demonstrate political strength by touting endorsements and cash on hand. If you missed it on Wednesday, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger endorsed Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in the 2024 Republican gubernatorial primary. Berger said Robinson has […]
NC Newsline investigative reporter Lynn Bonner on the new gerrymandered electoral maps
Gerrymandering. It’s a topic that’s been on a lot of lips in recent weeks as the Republican leadership of the North Carolina legislature, for what seems like the umpteenth time, drew new legislative and congressional maps for our state. Interestingly, while gerrymandering – that is to say, rigging maps to favor certain outcomes – is […]
State and local election workers quitting amid abuse, officials tell U.S. Senate panel
State and local election officials face threats and intimidation, driving experienced workers out of the profession, a panel of election officials told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday. Conspiracy theories have fueled a more hostile environment for election workers, which has led many to quit, creating more challenges for the inexperienced new leaders, the top election […]
Weekend reads: Leandro lawsuit revisited, redistricting shake-up, and finding environmental justice
1. NC Supreme Court agrees to rehear Leandro school funding lawsuit Nearly 30 years after an initial court decision, case will go back before the state’s highest court By Greg Childress The state Supreme Court has granted a discretionary review of North Carolina’s long-running school funding case to address whether the trial court lacked “subject […]
States Newsroom national reporter Zachary Roth discusses threats to democracy
Even though Donald Trump has been out of office now for well over two and a half years, some of his conservative allies – particularly at the state legislative level – continue to advance new laws that threaten democracy by making voting more difficult and exclusive and handing the oversight of elections to partisan […]
Third federal lawsuit filed over North Carolina’s new voting law
Lawyers with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new North Carolina elections law, saying it discriminates against young voters. This is the third lawsuit challenging the multi-faceted law that, among other things, eliminates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballot returns and allows partisan observers to move more […]
Prof. Steven Rogers on his new book, “Accountability in State Legislatures”
In his new book, “Accountability in State Legislatures,” Prof. Steven Rogers of St. Louis University presents a wealth of data which show that elections have come to do very little to hold state legislators accountable. Among other things, Rogers reports that more than a third of state legislative incumbents win reelection without either a […]
Alabama is creating its own voter database. Experts aren’t sure that’s wise.
When Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen unveiled the Alabama Voter Integrity Database (AVID) on Sept. 18, he fulfilled a campaign promise to voters to replace the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) he withdrew from nine months earlier. But several critics question the wisdom of pulling out of ERIC, a service that was shown to […]