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 […]
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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 […]
Alabama again at center of challenges to Voting Rights Act
When Alabama rewrote its state’s constitution in 1901, it limited voting to wealthy white men and established white supremacy as a guiding principle for state law. The fact that some clauses clearly violated provisions in the United States Constitution didn’t stop state leaders. It banned anyone from voting who wasn’t a male over 21, was […]
Rhode Island eases absentee ballot restrictions, but strict voter ID remains
Rhode Island changed state law this summer to remove three significant election barriers, but roadblocks including a strict voter ID requirement remain an issue, particularly for voters of color. The Let RI Vote Act, enacted in June, allows residents to vote by mail without an excuse, drops the requirement that mail ballots be signed by […]
Voting in California is easier, but large disparities in turnout remain
Experts widely agree that voting in California is getting easier: All registered voters now receive their ballots by mail, which can be tracked through a U.S. Postal Service serial number. Voters in many parts of the state can visit any voting center in their county instead of having a designated polling place. California law recently […]
New Jersey adopts early voting, will keep cops away from polling places
Voting is, for the most part, easy in New Jersey. Over the past few years, the state has permanently expanded access to voting in several key areas. But advocates are pushing for a more complete transition to universal vote-by-mail access, among other changes they see as key to equity. During the first year of the […]
‘A perfect storm of confusion:’ Voting faces systemic challenges in Alaska
Language and other barriers faced by Indigenous communities and the inability to get information to voters in broadband deserts caused a distressingly high rate of ballot rejections in Alaska’s June primaries. These problems exacerbate longstanding issues of inequity in access to voting and political representation in Alaska, such as relying on a postal service heavily […]
After record 2020 turnout, Iowa Republicans adopt numerous voting barriers
A record number of people voted in Iowa two years ago. Its Republican-controlled legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds responded by adopting a broad set of limitations last year that put up various roadblocks to absentee and election day voting. Voting rights advocates have called this legislation a blatant effort to suppress participation in elections after […]
Connecticut weighs changes to improve voting access
Connecticut’s state constitution makes voting harder for people who can’t take time off from work, travel to the polls or navigate long lines, which disproportionately hurts voters of color. But a proposed constitutional amendment and a push for the Democratic-controlled state to adopt a version of the federal Voting Rights Act could change that landscape […]
In high-barrier Oklahoma, gerrymandering assures GOP control
In deep red Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers have taken a few actions in the name of election security since the 2020 presidential election that make it more difficult to vote. Lawmakers have passed measures to conduct random audits after elections, to alert law enforcement if more than 10 are registered to vote at a single address […]
Maryland expands access to absentee and early voting
Maryland has been among the most aggressive states in the country over the past two years in making access to voting more equitable. Since 2020, the heavily Democratic Maryland state legislature has passed and Republican Gov. Larry Hogan signed new state laws that expand access to early voting and absentee ballots; improve voting access for […]
Montana sued after GOP targets Indigenous and younger voters with new laws
What advocates call a “cocktail” of new voter suppression laws in Montana, disproportionately disenfranchising the state’s Indigenous population and younger voters, were struck down by a judge in September. The laws, ruled unconstitutional, had been on hold under a temporary injunction since April. The decision could be appealed. All three laws emerged from the 2021 […]
Maine’s progressive stance on voting stumbles over ban on early voting
Many aspects of voting in Maine are among the most progressive in the country. It pioneered ranked-choice voting. It’s the only place besides Vermont and Washington, D.C., that guarantees voting rights for all adult citizens, regardless of criminal convictions or incarceration. It has same-day voter registration, and automatic voter registration when getting an ID or […]
South Dakota bans private support of election costs, ends use of drop boxes
South Dakota is in court again over policies that disenfranchise Indigenous voters. Many counties eliminated absentee ballot drop boxes that were used in a limited way in 2020, and the state passed a new law banning private foundations and individuals from funding part of the expenses of running local elections when government support falls short. […]
Arizona sued by DOJ over requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote
Amid a failed attempt by supporters of former President Donald Trump to throw out the state’s 2020 election results based on false accusations of voter fraud, Republicans who control Arizona’s state legislature and governor’s office passed significant new obstacles to voting. New laws allow for the purging of names from the state’s mail-in ballot voting […]
In Nevada, expanded access to voting tested by GOP embrace of ‘Big Lie’
Nevada has broadly expanded access to voting in recent years, restoring rights for individuals convicted of a felony, establishing universal access to mail-in ballots and increasing the number of polling places and drop boxes. It happened after Democrats won control of both the state legislature and governor’s office, but also under the watch of Republican […]
New York adopts a state Voting Rights Act while rejecting wider ballot access
Voting in New York is a work in progress. In the past year, the state adopted a new Voting Rights Act, but its voters shot down an opportunity to make mail-in voting broadly available. In these midterms, advocates’ most pressing concern is the lack of education around unnecessarily complicated absentee ballot changes. Deadlines to request […]
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 […]