Demographics

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.

September 11, 2019 - Lawmakers are again redrawing legislative election districts after a court ruled last week that the state constitution prohibits "extreme partisan gerrymandering." Republicans claim they want a fair process, but some are asking whether the first draft map favors the GOP.

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 23, 2019 - With the critical once-a-decade population count just months away, only three states in the South have allocated any state funding to encourage participation.

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.

June 28, 2019 - Fearing a population undercount that could result in lost congressional seats and federal funding, many states have taken aggressive steps to encourage full participation in the 2020 census. But some Southern states are dragging their feet.

June 12, 2019 - New evidence from the files of a dead North Carolina gerrymandering expert reveals the Trump administration pushed for the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census to benefit the Republican Party. But the question could lead to an undercount, which would diminish the South's electoral power and cheat it of its fair share of federal funds. 

May 9, 2019 - Across the region and the country, the Poor People's Campaign's Truth & Poverty Bus Tours have been gathering information on how public policy exacerbates poverty. It will be shared with the public next month at the Poor People's Moral Action Congress in Washington, D.C.

March 28, 2019 - After the state legislature failed to revamp a judicial voting district found to be racially discriminatory, a federal court has picked a technical advisor from California to do the job instead. Will the non-white voters of Terrebonne Parish finally get a fair shot at electing a judge of their choice next year?