voting rights
September 13, 2019 -
As the nation prepares for the 2020 election season, voting rights advocates testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee this week about the damaging effects of the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act and how to improve protections for voters of color.
August 29, 2019 -
They are turning to the courts to challenge a controversial new state law that imposes civil penalties on groups and individuals who submit incomplete voter registration forms. The law was passed after a successful effort to register more young people and African Americans for the 2018 midterm election.
August 27, 2019 -
The latest gerrymandering lawsuit in North Carolina claims that when legislators changed judicial elections districts in Charlotte last year, they packed black voters into a few districts and violated a constitutional mandate for a "unified" state court system.
August 2, 2019 -
Though an amendment added to the U.S. constitution during the height of the civil rights movement prohibits poll taxes, many states continue to effectively impose them by requiring people who've completed felony prison sentences to pay fines and fees before they can register to vote.
July 18, 2019 -
A judge recently ruled that the North Carolina legislature lost its power to amend the state constitution after federal courts ruled that it was unconstitutionally gerrymandered by race. Now new evidence suggests that lawmakers misled judges to buy time to pass the amendments.
July 15, 2019 -
Across the South, voting rights advocates argue that judicial elections violate the Voting Rights Act by depriving communities of color of representation on state courts. Federal courts are hearing lawsuits in Arkansas and Alabama, where the state supreme courts are all white.
July 3, 2019 -
Amid the current assaults on voting rights by Republican-led statehouses in the South, some Democratic presidential candidates have traveled to Southern states to release proposals for election reforms that would create new standards for combating discriminatory practices and expand voting access nationwide.