voting rights

October 9, 2014 - The nation's highest court has decided to allow North Carolina's restrictive new election law to take effect this year, reversing a lower court's ruling. In response, voting-rights advocates are carrying on with grassroots voter registration and protection efforts while continuing to challenge the law in the courts.

October 3, 2014 - North Carolina election officials are investigating a mailer sent by a conservative advocacy group funded by Art Pope and the Koch brothers that contained misinformation about voter registration. Facing South has identified at least three other states where people also received inaccurate mailings from the group -- and one of those efforts involved an attempt to strike people from voter rolls.

October 3, 2014 - The Fourth Circuit Court's decision blocking two provisions of the state's restrictive 2013 voting law ahead of the November election is an important victory for voting rights advocates. But North Carolina is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already proven reluctant to allow changes to voting laws so close to the election.

September 23, 2014 - With voter registration deadlines looming in many states, a network of more than 2,000 groups launches an initiative to sign up voters for November.

September 17, 2014 - A new study into what causes long voting lines has found that race plays a role in who waits the longest. It also found that states may be breaking their own laws by failing to invest adequate resources in elections.

September 11, 2014 - An analysis by a voting rights watchdog found that 454 North Carolina citizens who would have been able to successfully cast ballots in previous elections had their votes discounted in this year's primary because of the state's new election law -- and those affected were disproportionately African Americans and Democrats.

September 5, 2014 - Now that he's stepping down as North Carolina's budget director, conservative kingmaker Art Pope will have more time to devote to his discount retail company, which recently announced controversial plans to open a grocery in a historic black Raleigh neighborhood that's also a food desert. But Pope may face competition from a food cooperative offering a dramatically different business model.