Blog: Policy Shop

Many of us recall the purge of “felons” from the voter rolls in Florida in 2000 from a list that turned out to be egregiously flawed and served to disproportionately disenfranchise minority voters. In addition, however, the 1975 report from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission on the Voting Rights Act singled out the ongoing problematic […]

Requiring voters to present government-issued photo identification at the polls is a poll tax. In direct and indirect ways, voter identification laws impose financial and logistical burdens on some communities in particular, and are meant to deter those communities from voting. At the turn of the twentieth century, many states had direct poll taxes. These […]

Now that the Democratic Party has released their policy platform, we can compare what the two parties envision for the future. One huge point of difference is that the Democratic platform acknowledges climate change and the scientific backing for this claim. In contrast, the GOP openly mocked the idea of climate change even though their […]

Ronald Reagan’s hologram may not have shown up last night to the Republican convention last night to extoll the virtues of draconian government cuts, but the anti-tax movement that launched his political career continues to strangle California’s government. That’s because the movement has continued to define the state’s finances with a decades-old proposition leading to […]

The good jobs deficit is larger now than it was in 2000. The deficit grew dramatically during the recession and, despite two years of growth, has continued to grow during the recovery. A new report from the National Employment Law Center reveals troubling findings for the middle-class. The trend toward worse jobs and higher inequality, […]

Both Democrats and Republicans engaged in discriminatory challenges at the polls at the turn of the nineteenth century, but Republican party operatives alone have continued to orchestrate “caging” and challenge operations targeting minority polling places on a nationwide basis since the early 1960s. 1952 Republican National Convention. (Thomas J. O’Halloran, U.S. News & World Report […]

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon and a genuine American hero, died last Saturday at the age of 82. Armstrong led a relatively private life in the years following his historical achievement. When he did return to the public spotlight it was to stand up for the agency where he built […]

The AP has the report: A federal court has ruled against a Texas law that would require voters to present photo IDs to election officials before being allowed to cast ballots in November. A three-judge panel in Washington ruled Thursday that the law imposes “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor” and noted that racial minorities […]

Last month, in Pennsylvania, a state judge allowed Pennsylvania’s strict voter identification law even though the state has stipulated that “there have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.” The state is not […]

On Friday, the Census Bureau lost its director when Robert Groves stepped down to be Provost of Georgetown University. Director Groves was appointed to run the Census Bureau in 2009, with the 2010 Census rapidly approaching. Director Groves quickly put his stamp on the agency, working to cut costs and increase quality, while also working […]