State election officials want to see Washington help out with their real issues or get out of their polling booths.
Voting Rights
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Voter Suppression Works Too Well
The Republicans’ quest for a permanent political majority culminated in mammoth voter suppression in 2016. The 2018 midterm election promises both to embolden these efforts and energize resistance.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
In Defense of the Electoral College
Momentum is building on the left to abandon the Electoral College following Donald Trump’s presidential win, but the institution serves to protect democratic interests in the long run.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Will GOP Power Seizure in North Carolina Become National Model?
A bid by North Carolina’s GOP-controlled legislature to strip power from the state’s incoming Democratic governor has prompted another round of progressive protests and civil disobedience.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Q&A: After 2016, Will the Electoral College be Abolished?
Electors poised to officially install Donald Trump as president face mounting pressure to “go rogue,” but Electoral College scholar Robert Alexander says such lobbying campaigns are becoming par for the course, and wholesale changes in the current system are not likely.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Jill Stein Pulls Back the Curtain on America’s Voting Chaos
If nothing else, the Green Party leader’s quixotic recount bid shows that election administration in the U.S. is a colossal mess.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Republicans Gear Up to Eviscerate the Campaign-Finance Rules
From “Charity PACs” to soft money, Donald Trump and his GOP allies are just getting started on their campaign to roll back restrictions on moneyed interests.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Reforming Democracy in the Age of Trump
On November 10, Miles Rapoport sat down with Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed.TV to discuss what led to Donald Trump’s victory, what it means for voting rights and money in politics, and how democracy reformers should respond. Rapoport is a long-time democracy advocate who served as secretary of state in Connecticut, and president of both Demos and […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Democrats Must Mobilize America’s Largest Political Party: Nonvoters
Nearly half of eligible voters did not cast a ballot on November 8, and most of them are people the Democratic Party should be targeting.
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Democrats Make Gains in North Carolina Against Backdrop of Voter Suppression
Changing demographics, combined with the three-year effort by state Republicans to suppress minority and youth turnout, led to close races.
