voting rights

January 29, 2020 - The voter registration deadline for Florida's 2020 primary election is approaching. A federal judge ruled that the state cannot require people with felony convictions to pay court fines, if they cannot afford it, to have their voting rights restored. An appeals court is reviewing that decision.

December 10, 2019 - With the 2020 elections approaching, efforts to repeal laws that strip ex-felons of their voting rights are gaining momentum across the South.

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.

November 21, 2019 - The plaintiffs in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit want a North Carolina court to block judicial elections in districts that were drawn last year by the state legislature. In the racially diverse city of Charlotte, three of the eight districts are more than 70 percent white.

November 8, 2019 - Mildred Russell, an 89-year-old African-American woman, wasn't allowed to vote in a special election held earlier this year in Webster County, Georgia. It ended in a tie that her vote would have broken — so officials had to do the election over again this week.

November 6, 2019 - In Texas, which has long debated changes to its system of partisan judicial elections, Republican leaders began pushing an appointment system just a few months after last year's Democratic sweep in Houston's judicial elections. One proposed bill would put an end to elected judges in urban counties.

October 22, 2019 - After numerous colleges and universities were unable to meet the state's onerous requirements for allowing their student IDs to be used for voting, lawmakers tweaked the rules — and schools now face looming deadlines to reapply.