Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

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.

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."

Read More

Dozens of Questions: How Are Trump’s Auto Parts Tariffs Affecting the Broader Economy?

Photo of a car being assembled by robotic arms

Lenny Kuhne via Unsplash

Dozens of Questions: How Are Trump’s Auto Parts Tariffs Affecting the Broader Economy?

President Donald Trump made economic waves earlier this year when he announced a 25% tariff on imported automobiles and parts with the stated goal of revitalizing U.S. auto manufacturing. Yet as of summer 2025, the majority (92%) of Mexican-made auto parts continue to enter the United States tariff-free.

That’s because of a March 2025 revision that exempts cars and parts manufactured in compliance with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from tariffs.

Keep ReadingShow less
LGBTQ Refugees Came to America To Escape Discrimination. Now, They Live in Fear in the U.S.
blue and yellow abstract painting
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

LGBTQ Refugees Came to America To Escape Discrimination. Now, They Live in Fear in the U.S.

Salvadoran refugee Alberto, who is using a pseudonym out of safety concerns, did not feel secure in his own home. Being a gay man in a country known for state-sponsored violence and community rejection meant Alberto lived his life on high alert.

His family did not accept him. He says one family member physically attacked him because of his identity. He says he has been followed, harassed, and assaulted by police, accused of crimes he didn’t commit when he was studying to become a social worker. His effort to escape the rejection in his community left him, at one point, homeless and lost in a new city.

Keep ReadingShow less