On Equality Day, a Call for the Equal Right to Vote
Rosanell Eaton, age 92, was one of the first African-Americans to vote in North Carolina — even as the state tried its best to stop her. When she reached the age of eligibility back in the 1940s, as a...
View ArticleFinally, There’s Reason for Optimism on Voting Laws
Everyone knows that Washington is mired in gridlock. But on what has been one of our most partisan, divisive issues, something strange is happening in our nation’s capital. After three years of pitched...
View ArticleHow progressives can turn the deep South blue
The whispers are traveling around progressive circles from Atlanta to Washington: Georgia might go blue by 2020 or even 2016. But what about 2014? The demographic winds in the South are shifting, and...
View ArticleVoter Registration is the Antidote to Voter Suppression
We have known what it is for at least half a century. Fifty years ago this month, Freedom Summer activists risked life and limb to register voters in Mississippi and spread the gospel of democracy...
View ArticleAn Election Without Protection
The 2014 mid-term elections are coming, with the political season upon us. It is all so familiar—the ads on TV, knocks on the door, and calls during dinner as candidates vie for the hearts, minds, and...
View ArticleHonoring the Civil Rights Act, 50 Years Later
Fifty years ago today, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. On that great day in 1964, surrounded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other national leaders, President Johnson outlawed...
View ArticleOne Year After Shelby Decision, States Have Moved to Restrict Voter Access
One year ago, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for state legislatures to restrict voting access. In Shelby County v. Holder, the Court struck down the formula for Section 5 of the Voting Rights...
View ArticleA Comprehensive Investigation of Voter Impersonation Finds 31 Credible...
Voter ID laws are back in the news once again, with two new opinions from the Wisconsin Supreme Court late last week dealing with the state’s ID requirement, which would allow people to vote only if...
View ArticleCongress Must Keep Its Voting Rights Promise
Congress went home last week without tackling several critical issues facing our country. This is common in an election year. But this year should have been different. For the first time in nearly five...
View ArticleVRA Turns 49: Looking Back and Looking Forward at Voting Rights
Forty-ninth anniversaries don’t usually garner much attention, but today a 49th anniversary—though filled with pathos—is worth commemorating. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President...
View ArticleIf 1964 Was ‘Freedom Summer,’ Is 2014 ‘Courtroom Summer’?
A few weeks ago, to the low roar from a Brooklyn music venue, I got carded. It doesn’t happen often anymore. While the bowling pins fell and as the Williamsburg hipsters ordered their mojitos, I looked...
View ArticleThe Mythical Swing Voter
How can election polls swing so much given the increasingly polarized nature of American politics, where switching one’s support between candidates is a significant move? We investigate this question...
View ArticleHow Do Proof-of-Citizenship Laws Block Legitimate Voters?
In 2008, as the state of Missouri was poised to adopt a constitutional amendment to require documentary proof of citizenship of every person wishing to register to vote in the state, the New York Times...
View ArticleOn Women’s Equality Day, Looking Back — and Ahead
A century ago, as Americans debated whether women should be allowed to vote, one prominent observer scoffed at the notion of voter equality. Allowing women the right to vote, the critic wrote, “would...
View Article51 Million Americans are Invisible to the Political Process
In her testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Demos President Heather McGhee describes what we can do to cut the red tape preventing 1 in 4 eligible voters from being engaged in the political...
View ArticleThe Precarious Position of Voting Rights
Voting is the cornerstone of democracy – at least, it should be. But American democracy shifted dramatically on June 25, 2013, when the Supreme Court’s Shelby County v. Holder decision gutted a...
View ArticleWe Already Know Who Won the 2014 Election
There is still suspense over what will happen on Election Day, with control of the Senate hanging in the balance. But regardless of who wins, we already know the 2014 election belongs to the U.S....
View ArticleEnding Voter Suppression Ahead of 2016
For far too many Americans, voting became more difficult or, in some cases, impossible in 2014. In Texas, Imani Clark, a Black state college student and client of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the...
View Article50 Years of the Voting Rights Act
Today the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released 50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: The State of Race in Politics. The report examines minority voter turnout, racially polarized...
View ArticleThe Mysterious Number of American Citizens
Many Americans believe that someone, somewhere in Washington, must be in charge of tracking who is and who isn’t a citizen of the United States. Apparently, so does the U.S. Supreme Court, which just...
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