When Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement on June 27th, many of us looked at it as a big blow for hopes for the Supreme Court to help reign in partisan gerrymandering. Over the last few years, there had been much speculation about how Justice Kennedy might...
Supreme Court punts on Wisconsin, Maryland gerrymandering cases In two rulings today, Gill v. Whitford and Benisek v. Lamone, the Supreme Court effectively hit the snooze button on making a meaningful decision on partisan gerrymandering....
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the state of Ohio in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute. The decision focused on Ohio’s practice of purging voters from the eligible voter list if they didn’t vote for two years and if they didn’t respond to a...
Within the next few weeks, possibly days, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases that will have a major impact on the fairness of elections and voting. It’s not hyperbole to say that these decisions could shape the nature of American...
Blue wave, schmoo wave: Will young voters show up this fall? When it comes to elections, there’s a reliable trend: old people vote; young people, not so much. Young people have lowest voter participation rate of any age group. In 2016, only 46% of Americans...
Ohio votes against Gerrymandering. Kinda. The biggest voting rights news this week is that on Tuesday, Ohio voters, by a three-to-one margin, overwhelmingly approved Issue 1, a ballot initiative designed to reform how congressional districts are drawn. Issue 1 was...
“Everybody does it”… but do they? A reader wrote me after last week’s issue and pointed out that as I detailed examples of states with extreme gerrymandering, I only highlighted states where Republicans redistricted to favor their...
Gerrymandering distorts the democratic process, skewing election outcomes in ways that don’t fairly reflect the electorate. In many states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina, partisan gerrymandering has grossly distorted state and...
Time served, but still not free When an American has been convicted of a felony, goes to jail, serves his or her time, then is released, the general principle is that they’ve paid their debt to society and have a new chance at a better life. A criminal record...
