DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS: Voting and politics in the South

By Chris Kromm / April 1, 2020

Articles in this series

Oriaku Njoku on envisioning a South where reproductive justice is a reality

By Jessica Agbemavor
July 15, 2021 - The co-founder and executive director of the Atlanta-based abortion fund Access Reproductive Care-Southeast talked to Facing South about the critical difference between reproductive rights and reproductive justice, President Biden's proposal to scrap a budget provision banning federally funded abortions, and what a South with true reproductive freedom would look like.

How Art Pope's money shaped UNC's toxic debate over Nikole Hannah-Jones

By Sue Sturgis
July 16, 2021 - Long before journalist Hannah-Jones' tenure fight with the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees, the influential conservative policy network built and funded by millionaire businessman and GOP power broker Art Pope had turned its attention to her reporting on racism with attacks and distortions reminiscent of its dishonest treatment of climate science. Pope denied direct involvement in the tenure controversy, but his organizations' messaging carries weight in a UNC system where he's a major donor and serves on the powerful Board of Governors thanks to the Republican legislature he helped elect.

VOICES: How students can fight back against attacks on their voting rights

By Jeffrey Clemmons
July 15, 2021 - Texas's SB7 anti-voter bill, which was set to be considered in a special session until Democratic lawmakers fled the state to block it, is part of a wave of nearly 400 such measures introduced in state legislatures this year in reaction to 2020's unprecedented turnout by young people. There are several steps they can take to fight back, says Jeffrey Clemmons, a student in Texas and an Andrew Goodman Foundation ambassador.

Working around Republican resistance on Medicaid expansion

By Rebekah Barber
July 1, 2021 - Over 2 million adults — including over half a million essential workers — fall into the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have refused to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act, and most are people of color living in the South. Congressional Democrats from Georgia and Texas recently unveiled plans to work around GOP-controlled legislatures' refusal to authorize broader Medicaid coverage even when facing a deadly pandemic.

VOICES: A step toward occupational licensing fairness for Georgians with criminal records

By DJ Sims
May 27, 2021 - Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed into law a bill that would bar Georgia's many licensing boards from denying credentials to people on probation or parole for many crimes. That's an important step toward fair chance licensing, says DJ Sims, a reentry organizer in Georgia — but additional reforms are needed to ensure that people who've served their time are able to make a living.  

With big business backing, GOP revamps appellate courts in Southern states

By Billy Corriher
April 8, 2021 - The Texas legislature may consolidate the state's appeals courts, where Democrats have gained seats in recent elections — and watchdogs say the changes could violate the Voting Rights Act. The plan is being pushed by a big business group that has spent nearly $1 million to back GOP judicial candidates. A new West Virginia appeals court also had the support of big business.

Confronting the anti-civil rights filibuster

By Benjamin Barber
March 24, 2021 - U.S. senators are currently considering whether to eliminate, reform, or protect the filibuster. The parliamentary procedure that gives the minority outsized power has a long history of being used to undermine civil rights legislation — and it now threatens to derail a bold Democratic agenda that includes voting rights and other pro-democracy reforms.

As states crack down on voting, advocates look to Congress

By Benjamin Barber
March 10, 2021 - Republican lawmakers nationwide have introduced over 250 bills this year to restrict voting access in 43 states — 39 bills in Georgia alone. Given the backlash against last year's record-breaking voter turnout playing out at the state level, voting rights advocates are looking to Congress and the promise of H.R. 1, which has now advanced to the U.S. Senate. But can it get past the filibuster?

INSTITUTE INDEX: Who's funding the Senate's Sedition Caucus?

By Sue Sturgis
January 11, 2021 - The legal, real estate, investment, and oil and gas industries are among those that have contributed the most to the U.S. senators who were part of the effort to overturn the outcome of the presidential election. Among the companies that back spending groups which in turn have supported the Senate's election deniers are Altria Group, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Noble Energy, and Walt Disney. There's growing pressure on companies to reconsider their giving.

INSTITUTE INDEX: What Georgia's Senate runoffs mean for U.S. climate policy

By Sue Sturgis
December 14, 2020 - The Jan. 5 runoff elections for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia will determine which party controls the Senate — and that will be a critical factor for whether the Biden administration will be able to advance its ambitious policy goals and cut greenhouse gas emissions to a level that gives the international community a chance at staving off even more devastating climate disruption.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Meet the conservative powerbroker suing True the Vote over fraud claims flop

By Sue Sturgis
December 4, 2020 - North Carolina pharmaceutical entrepreneur Fred Eshelman gave $2.5 million to the Houston-based group to pursue claims of fraud in the presidential election, which he says they failed to take adequate action to substantiate. It's not the first time Eshelman, a big political spender who gives most of his money to outside groups, has been involved in funding ethically questionable efforts.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Virginia senator's law firm promotes GOP voter fraud lies

By Sue Sturgis
November 16, 2020 - Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, whose managing partner is Virginia state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R), was one of three main law firms involved in this year's unprecedented election litigation. That work continued the partners' longtime efforts to create the appearance of voter fraud where none exists — a gambit that's gotten the firm sued for defamation in North Carolina.

THE STAKES 2020: Calandra Davis on how elections shape poor Mississippians' lives

By Olivia Paschal
October 26, 2020 - Mississippi is one of the poorest states in America, and one-third of Black Mississippians live under the federal poverty line. We spoke with Calandra Davis, a policy analyst at Hope Policy Institute and a community activist, about how federal elections affect the regulatory state and thus people's access to affordable housing, health care, and banking.

THE STAKES 2020: Catherine Coleman Flowers on the environmental justice movement and elections

By Rebekah Barber
October 23, 2020 - Across the rural South's Black Belt, the lack of adequate sewage and water infrastructure has created serious public health problems. We spoke with Catherine Coleman Flowers, a longtime environmental justice activist in rural Alabama and the recent recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, about her work to draw attention to the region's intersecting crises and how grassroots activism can impact federal policy. 

Federal judges block efforts to ease rules for mail-in ballots

By Billy Corriher
October 22, 2020 - As millions of voters cast ballots this month, federal courts in the South shot down attempts to make voting easier during the pandemic, and some relied on a novel argument giving them more power to overrule state courts. The rulings have led to calls to expand the Supreme Court and lower courts if Democrats take the White House and Senate. 

THE STAKES 2020: Aranza Sosa on voting out racist officials in a rural North Carolina county

By Olivia Paschal
October 19, 2020 - Alamance County, North Carolina, has been the site of recent protests over a local Confederate monument, and its sheriff has long been accused of racism for public comments and his participation in ICE's controversial 287(g) program. We spoke with local activist Aranza Sosa about growing up in the shadow of 287(g) and the power of elected officials who come from the same background she does.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Confronting the GOP's poll watcher threats

By Sue Sturgis
October 2, 2020 - This presidential election will be the first in 40 years to take place without a consent decree in place requiring the Republican National Committee to refrain from voter intimidation under the guise of ballot security. With President Trump urging his supporters to go to the polls and "watch very carefully," we look at what the law says about such activity and how voting rights advocates are responding.

Poverty continues to prevent many ex-felons from voting

By Benjamin Barber
September 9, 2020 - As states across the country gear up for the November elections, millions of formerly incarcerated people could be blocked from voting because of laws requiring them to first pay all court fines and fees. But voting rights advocates are challenging those laws — and they recently racked up a big win in North Carolina.

INSTITUTE INDEX: Meet the Trump megadonor behind Postal Service delays

By Sue Sturgis
August 6, 2020 - After North Carolina businessman and major GOP donor Louis DeJoy was appointed postmaster general in May, he announced an "operational pivot" to control costs that's caused delivery delays. Critics worry that DeJoy — who grew wealthy on USPS contracts and remains invested in USPS competitors — is a political partisan who's operationalizing President Trump's hostility to mail-in voting.

A poll tax by any other name

By Dana Sweeney
July 9, 2020 - States across the country require people with felony convictions to purchase their voting rights back if they ever want to cast a ballot again. It is a mechanism that felony disenfranchisement schemes increasingly rely upon, and it marks a return to the sordid tactics of Jim Crow.

Citizens United at 10: Why fighting corruption is a racial justice issue

By Chris Kromm
January 17, 2020 - It's been a decade since the Supreme Court ruling opened a new era of Big Money influence in politics, heightening concerns over corruption and creating new barriers for lower-income candidates and candidates of color. But democracy advocates and their allies have responded by building a movement that links anti-corruption measures with broader reforms.

How does war affect elections?

By Rebekah Barber
January 16, 2020 - With a presidential election season underway, the Trump administration carried out a deadly drone strike in Iraq, killing key Iranian military leaders and stoking fears of another war. What does recent research say about war's impact on elections and voting?

Southern states take up fight for bold democracy reforms

By Chris Kromm
December 6, 2019 - With reform blocked in Washington, voting rights advocates are shifting their attention to the states and are proposing far-reaching, pro-democracy agendas across the South. While the plans face an uphill battle, advocates see their efforts as a chance to be proactive after years of playing legal and political defense.