Republicans who control both houses of the state legislature and the governor’s office in New Hampshire are maintaining the state’s strict limitations on registering to vote and casting ballots while enacting new security requirements and penalties advocates see as an attempt to criminalize people who mistakenly fail to follow rules that were unnecessary in the […]
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Illinois allows curbside voting, improves access for incarcerated
Since 2020, Illinois has gone further than almost any other state to expand access to voting for both the overall population and some of the state’s most marginalized people. The state expanded early voting hours, made Election Day a state holiday and set a higher bar for local election officials to reject absentee ballots just […]
New West Virginia restrictions follow Republican playbook in other states
Even though West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner claims that the 2020 presidential election results were “fair” in his state, he questions the results in other states and has used former President Donald Trump’s claims about voter fraud to justify changes advocates fear will suppress voter turnout. Earlier this year, the West Virginia state […]
In Indiana, extreme gerrymandering and low voter turnout go hand-in-hand
As the CEO of Women4Change Indiana, Rima Shahid spends her time talking to potential voters, trying to convince them to support policies that would make the state a better place for women. “The statement that we hear time and time again is that it doesn’t matter,” Shahid said. It’s not that people in Indiana are […]
Hawaii’s all-mail voting system a barrier for unhoused, non-English speakers
Hawaii was ahead of other states in moving to a universal mail ballot system that greatly improved access to voting. Even with an improvement in voter turnout, the state’s turnout remained among the lowest in the country for the 2020 election. Lawmakers looked more deeply into the reasons. They found that language troubles and homelessness […]
In Wisconsin, voting limits vetoed, but conservative court steps in
Wisconsin, a key battleground state that has a divided government and was narrowly won by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election, has been a focal point of a nationwide Republican push to further restrict access to voting. Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has vetoed six Republican-backed bills that would have put up more barriers for […]
It’s easy to vote in Washington, D.C., but it still doesn’t count
The District of Columbia has some of the most inclusive voter laws in the country. Voters can register in person, by mail or online. Voters can cast a ballot in person, by mail or at a drop box. Additionally, it stands with only Maine and Vermont as a place where residents convicted of felonies never […]
More than 15% of Black Mississippi residents permanently barred from voting
Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country at nearly 39%. White Republicans have long had total control over state government due to an array of voter suppression policies dating back to Reconstruction, designed to keep the formerly enslaved from exercising full citizenship rights. Mississippi has an extreme felony disenfranchisement law, with […]
In Wyoming, barriers for people with disabilities, criminal record
What does equality mean for the “Equality State” in a modern world? Wyoming got its nickname in 1869, before it was even a state, when the territory granted women the right to vote. In the 153 years since, waves of voter suppression tactics have followed closely after societal and political gains made by people of […]
Supreme Court allows extreme racial gerrymandering to stand in Louisiana
Louisiana’s Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic governor have agreed on a series of minor improvements to voting access in the past two years. But an extreme gerrymander of the congressional districts has made representation of the state’s growing Black population less equitable. Louisiana is one of four states this year that will be using a redistricting […]
New Mexico makes it easier to register to vote
New Mexico has steadily expanded access to voting since Democrats took control of state government in 2018, but continues to disenfranchise citizens convicted of felonies. Starting this year, people in New Mexico can register to vote up to and on Election Day. Previously, voters had to register at least 28 days before Election Day. “With […]
Judge blocks Delaware’s move to no-excuse vote by mail
A judge has struck down a new law that would have allowed no-excuse mail-in ballots in Delaware this November, but upheld the state legislature’s adoption of same-day voter registration. Delaware allowed universal access to voting by mail two years ago amid concern about COVID-19. At the time, a different judge ruled that the change was […]
With Michigan government deadlock, advocates ask voters to ease access
A ballot initiative that would sidestep a Republican-controlled state legislature and expand voting rights in Michigan has surpassed the number of signatures needed to appear on the November ballot, but opponents have challenged it on technical grounds. The measure advanced by voter advocacy group Promote the Vote would allow for nine days of early voting […]
Indigenous voters challenge North Dakota voter ID rules, gerrymandering
For decades, multiple Indigenous tribes in North Dakota have sued the state for infringing on their voting rights, with mixed success. In 2011, they were successful in keeping polling places open in Benson County after they were closed, and since 2013 they’ve both won and lost lawsuits over the details of North Dakota’s voter ID […]
In Florida, extreme gerrymandering and people arrested for voting
Days before Florida’s primary this year, a new task force, dubbed the “election police,” arranged the arrest of 20 people, putting them in handcuffs and loading them into police cruisers. Their crime? Voting. In 2018, Florida residents voted overwhelmingly to end the state’s draconian lifetime ban on voting for people who have been convicted of […]
Nebraska voters will consider new ID requirements
Unlike their counterparts in most Republican-leaning states across the country, legislators in Nebraska have resisted placing new restrictions on access to voting. But in November, voters will consider a significant one. Right-wing activists echoing former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election collected enough signatures to put new photo ID requirements […]
Oregon improves voting access while targeting misinformation, harassment
In the past two years, Oregon has improved multilingual access to ballot instructions, made it easier to register to vote and strengthened privacy and legal protections for election workers subject to harassment as former President Donald Trump spread false conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 election. Oregon has served as a decades-long model […]
Ohio votes under ‘extreme’ gerrymandering that favors Republicans
Once a swing state, Ohio has turned solidly red. Extreme gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts could keep it that way for a long time. Although Republicans control statewide offices such as governor, secretary of state and attorney general, the state is pretty evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Because of gerrymandering, Republicans boast supermajorities […]
In Tennessee, 1 in 5 Black residents are barred from voting
One in five Black residents of Tennessee are prohibited by state law from voting. In combination with numerous other election barriers, advocates say, people of color have been broadly disenfranchised by white lawmakers maintaining their grip on power in the state. Tennessee has one of the most draconian laws in the country stripping voting rights […]
In North Carolina, GOP legislature wants control over federal elections
Voting rights in North Carolina hinge on the balance of powers between the three branches of government. For now, North Carolina residents have broad access to voting beyond showing up at the polls on Election Day. They can cast an absentee ballot by mail without having to provide a reason, or vote early in person […]
Texas limits mail voting, adds ID requirements after surge in turnout
Texas has vacillated between occasionally prying open a smidgen of expanded access to the ballot box and then constraining it. It’s a state with a long history of voter intimidation and suppression — recorded since at least 1902, when it enacted an annual poll tax, designed to discourage Mexican-Americans, African Americans and poor whites from […]
Court victories deliver cautious hope for voters with disabilities
Paralyzed from the neck down, downtown Milwaukee resident Martha Chambers has difficulty voting. This story also appeared in Stateline She can use a mouth stick to mark her ballot and sign her name on an absentee ballot, but she has no way of folding the ballot, slipping it back in the envelope or returning it […]
Voters in jail face ‘de facto disenfranchisement’
Each election cycle, thousands of eligible voters are effectively disenfranchised because they sit in a jail cell. Americans detained before trials are allowed to vote, a status affirmed by a 1974 Supreme Court case. As a matter of law, pretrial detainees are presumed innocent and retain the voting rights they had before being charged with […]
Indigenous journalists make way for sunshine
This story also appeared in The Investigative Reporting Workshop Lori Edmo just wanted to find out how her tribe was spending federal COVID-19 relief money. As a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, on the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho, she knew her tribal government had received more than $17 million in CARES Act funding […]
Redistricting: Tribes fight for an equal voice
This story also appeared in Investigate West and The Investigative Reporting Workshop The Columbia and Okanogan Rivers to the east, south and west of the Colville Indian Reservation form natural borders on a map of north-central Washington. On the ground, the reservation’s forested hills and lakes juxtaposed with vast grasslands have fueled the tribes’ economic […]
A battleground fight over polling places and voting rights in Georgia
As a half-dozen voting rights advocates filed into the Lincoln County Board of Elections to deliver a petition that temporarily halted plans to shutter polling places, the tension between them and elections director Lilvender Bolton was nearly palpable. This story also appeared in Georgia Public Broadcasting and NPR After spending the afternoon anxiously watching the […]
New anti-protest laws cast a long shadow on First Amendment rights
This story also appeared in HuffPost and Indian Country Today Tiffany Crutcher was worried. Oklahoma lawmakers had passed a new measure stiffening penalties for protesters who block roadways and granting immunity to drivers who unintentionally hit them. The state NAACP, saying the law was passed in response to racial justice demonstrations and could chill the […]
New data tracks polling place locations for 37 states
The Center for Public Integrity is releasing a dataset of polling place locations used in the 2020 general election to help journalists and researchers analyze access to the ballot box and the potential impact of a slew of changes to state election laws. The new data release, available via Github, includes polling place locations and […]
Challenges to the Voting Rights Act far from over
When the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important voting rights case earlier this year, its ruling made it more difficult for voters to challenge restrictive state voting laws. Now, the state of Texas is making an argument that, if adopted, would further hobble use of what remains of the Voting Rights Act. In a brief […]
Pro-Trump nonprofit gives millions to groups boosting his agenda
A nonprofit closely tied to former President Donald Trump and his administration gave millions of dollars in 2020 to an array of conservative groups, a new tax filing from the nonprofit, now called America First Works, shows. The largest grant to an outside group, nearly $4.8 million, went to Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund often […]