News
First ranked-choice presidential vote will be in Maine this fall, state's top court decides
There is no more doubt: Ranked-choice voting will be used for the first time in a presidential election this year.
Voters in Maine will be allowed to list their candidates in order of preference, and its four electoral votes will only be awarded to those who get a majority's support, under a decision Tuesday from the state Supreme Court.
The ruling is a huge symbolic victory for advocates of ranked elections, who view them as a magic formula for improving democracy by reducing the major parties' influence, encouraging more consensus-building campaigns, promoting the prospects of outsiders — and guaranteeing winners can claim a mandate because they have been endorsed by most voters.
Voter Registration Day combats a sharp decline in signups thanks to Covid
Tuesday marks six weeks until Election Day and is National Voter Registration Day, a moment to turbocharge sign-ups before it's too late. But the significant blow the coronavirus has dealt to civic engagement this year leaves in doubt how many millions of eligible but still unregistered Americans can be found and converted on the unofficial holiday.
Fresh national numbers from the Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive think tank which does some of the most extensive research on democracy's challenges, confirm the drop in registration compared to the last presidential election. The organization's analysis of 21 states found 17 have watched registration rates plummet since four year ago.
With the first deadlines coming the first week of October in 15 states, a bevy of groups with sometimes similar sounding names have refocused — or been formed — to push the uphill goal of finding millions more willing first-time voters, with an emphasis on younger people.
All 3 Great Lakes battlegrounds have mail ballot extensions, at least for now
Delayed-in-the-mail extensions for absentee ballots have now been ordered by courts in all three of the crucial Great Lakes battlegrounds, increasing the odds for a more comprehensive but also a more prolonged presidential election.
The later deadlines that judges have ordered in the past week in Pennsylvania, Michigan and now Wisconsin are far from locked in place, however, because Republican efforts to reverse them are likely in all three states — with their collective 46 electoral votes central to President Trump's reelection prospects.
Federal Judge William Conley, for starters, has put in limbo for one week his own order Tuesday covering Wisconsin. Conley ruled that ballots postmarked by Election Day be counted as valid if received by local clerks by Nov. 9, a six-day extension. He said he was doing so to avoid confusion if his decision is overturned on appeal, and to keep the pressure on Wisconsinites to vote early.
Michigan election jokes? One's about a stool pigeon and a plumber. The other involves Trump.
Sometimes, for sanity's sake, you just have to laugh at what is happening in this crazy year of very serious debates over how our elections are going to be conducted.
Maybe these two related stories out of battleground Michigan in the last few days will help — although, be forewarned, one's a bit more overtly humorous than the other.
Think you’re an election security whiz? Test yourself.
Thanks to the pandemic, safety has topped security as the biggest voter concern about the 2020 election. But government and independent experts warn that foreign election interference remains a significant threat. How up to speed are you on what a secure election looks like?
Debate
Let's help millions escape from voter registration limbo
It's National Voter Registration Day. Brian Miller of Nonprofit VOTE has some thoughts on how to make voter registration less of a hassle.
Community
How to make sure your vote counts
The Fulcrum invites to discuss the realities of voting during the coronavirus pandemic and answer questions about how individual states are handling voting procedures and where voting has become easier.