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Prominent Republican speaks out against Texas bill to punish voter registration errors

Legislation to criminalize errors on voter registration forms has become the most polarizing political process measure advancing through the Republican-run Texas Legislature this year. Now the down-the-line partisan divide has been broken.

Republican Trey Grayson, Kentucky's former secretary of state and top elections official, is urging the Texas House to abandon or seriously modify the bill, which the state Senate passed last month amid cries from Democrats that the goal was disenfranchisement of the poor and elderly. He says it will scare thousands of honest citizens away from the political process out of fear an error on newly complicated paperwork could result in a felony conviction and prison time.


"Texas policymakers ought to be focused on modernizing and securing our elections so that everyone who's eligible to vote can vote and only eligible votes count," Grayson told the San Antonio Current after a round of lobbying in Austin, and the bill "unfortunately, doesn't advance those things."

Whatever changes Texas makes to its democratic systems have national implications, not only because it's now the second-most populous state but also because its changing demographics are recoloring the electoral map from deep Republican "red" into electoral bellwether purple.

Grayson chairs the Secure Elections Project, an advocacy group tied to the bipartisan Center for Secure and Modern Elections, which also is skeptical of the bill. He has also run the Harvard Institute of Politics and was Mitch McConnell's choice for the Senate seat won by Rand Paul in 2010.

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His party's fixation with making it harder to vote, he said, is a strategically bad idea because "We're sending a message to voters that we can't win on our own."

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The Fragile Ceasefire in Gaza

A view of destruction as Palestinians, who returned to the city following the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, struggle to survive among ruins of destroyed buildings during cold weather in Jabalia, Gaza on January 23, 2025.

Getty Images / Anadolu

The Fragile Ceasefire in Gaza

Ceasefire agreements are like modern constitutions. They are fragile, loaded with idealistic promises, and too easily ignored. Both are also crucial to the realization of long-term regional peace. Indeed, ceasefires prevent the violence that is frequently the fuel for instability, while constitutions provide the structure and the guardrails that are equally vital to regional harmony.

More than ever, we need both right now in the Middle East.

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Money Makes the World Go Round Roundtable

The Committee on House Administration meets on the 15th anniversary of the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United v. FEC.

Medill News Service / Samanta Habashy

Money Makes the World Go Round Roundtable

WASHINGTON – On the 15th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and one day after President Trump’s inauguration, House Democrats made one thing certain: money determines politics, not the other way around.

“One of the terrible things about Citizens United is people feel that they're powerless, that they have no hope,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Ma.).

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Top-Two Primaries Under the Microscope

The United States Supreme Court.

Getty Images / Rudy Sulgan

Top-Two Primaries Under the Microscope

Fourteen years ago, after the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the popular blanket primary system, Californians voted to replace the deeply unpopular closed primary that replaced it with a top-two system. Since then, Democratic Party insiders, Republican Party insiders, minor political parties, and many national reform and good government groups, have tried (and failed) to deep-six the system because the public overwhelmingly supports it (over 60% every year it’s polled).

Now, three minor political parties, who opposed the reform from the start and have unsuccessfully sued previously, are once again trying to overturn it. The Peace and Freedom Party, the Green Party, and the Libertarian Party have teamed up to file a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Their brief repeats the same argument that the courts have previously rejected—that the top-two system discriminates against parties and deprives voters of choice by not guaranteeing every party a place on the November ballot.

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Independents as peacemakers

Group of people waving small American flags at sunset.

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Independents as peacemakers

In the years ahead, independents, as candidates and as citizens, should emerge as peacemakers. Even with a new administration in Washington, independents must work on a long-term strategy for themselves and for the country.

The peacemaker model stands in stark contrast to what might be called the marriage counselor model. Independent voters, on the marriage counselor model, could elect independent candidates for office or convince elected politicians to become independents in order to secure the leverage needed to force the parties to compromise with each other. On this model, independents, say six in the Senate, would be like marriage counselors because their chief function would be to put pressure on both parties to make deals, especially when it comes to major policy bills that require 60 votes in the Senate.

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