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Charlie Kirk’s Death Sparks Martyrdom Narrative Amid Rising Political Violence

Charlie Kirk’s Death Sparks Martyrdom Narrative Amid Rising Political Violence

Supreme Court

MAGA Supreme Court Justices Show Their True Colors by Joining Trump’s Attack on the Federal Judiciary

Governor Cox’s Prayer Wasn’t Just Misguided—It Was Dangerous

Governor Cox’s Prayer Wasn’t Just Misguided—It Was Dangerous

Donald Trump and the Rise of Political Violence

Donald Trump and the Rise of Political Violence

Democrats win another voting victory in a swing state

Absentee ballots

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has revised the state's guidelines to local election officials on how to verify the signatures of voters on absentee ballots.

Kimberly White/Getty Ima
Bill Theobald
By Bill TheobaldApr 22, 2020
Bill Theobald

Bill Theobald is senior writer at The Fulcrum, where he focuses on everything to do with voting. This December marks his 40th anniversary in the business, and he still believes -- now more than ever -- that the glow from great journalism can truly light the world.

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Chalk up another legal victory for Democrats trying to open up the voting process in time for this year's election.

The attorney behind the party's courthouse campaign in battleground states, Marc Elias, announced Tuesday that one of his lawsuits has prompted Michigan to revise its system for validating signatures on absentee ballots.

Democrats have already successfully sued for changes in the signature-checking procedures of Florida, Georgia and Iowa. Those three and Michigan are all swing states in the presidential campaign, and all of their combined 67 electoral votes were secured by Donald Trump in 2016 by fewer than 10 percentage points.

The fight over handwriting analysis on ballots mailed in or dropped off at government offices was once a secondary aspect of this year's voting rights debate. But it's gained significant attention now, since absentee balloting looks guaranteed to surge nationwide as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Michigan, which Trump won by fewer than 11,000 votes out of more than 5 million tallied, absentee ballots could be rejected whenever election officials determined the signatures on the papers did not match the examples they had on file.

The lawsuit argued that leeway violated federal law and the Constitution because there was not any uniform standards or procedures for reviewing the signatures and the people doing the work lacked appropriate training. Also, the law does not require election officials to notify voters when their absentee ballots or applications were rejected, nor is there a process to fix the situation even if it is discovered in time.

Now, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has announced revisions in state policy governing mail ballots. The changes are not exactly what was requested in the lawsuit, but they're close enough that Democrats are declaring victory.

Benson's guidance instructs local clerks to do three things: Inform voters immediately if a signature is missing or doesn't match what is on file; presume signatures are valid unless they differ in "multiple, significant and obvious respects" from what is on file; and use a new training resource on how to perform signature verification.

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An oversized ballot box surrounded by people.

Young people worldwide form new parties to reshape politics—yet America’s two-party system blocks them.

Getty Images, J Studios

No Country for Young Politicians—and How To Fix That

In democracies around the world, young people have started new political parties whenever the establishment has sidelined their views or excluded them from policymaking. These parties have sometimes reinvigorated political competition, compelled established parties to take previously neglected issues seriously, or encouraged incumbent leaders to find better ways to include and reach out to young voters.

In Europe, a trio in their twenties started Volt in 2017 as a pan-European response to Brexit, and the party has managed to win seats in the European Parliament and in some national legislatures. In Germany, young people concerned about climate change created Klimaliste, a party committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as per the Paris Agreement. Although the party hasn’t won seats at the federal level, they have managed to win some municipal elections. In Chile, leaders of the 2011 student protests, who then won seats as independent candidates, created political parties like Revolución Democrática and Convergencia Social to institutionalize their movements. In 2022, one of these former student leaders, Gabriel Boric, became the president of Chile at 36 years old.

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How To Fix Gerrymandering: A Fair-Share Rule for Congressional Redistricting

Demonstrators gather outside of The United States Supreme Court during an oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford to call for an end to partisan gerrymandering on October 3, 2017 in Washington, DC

Getty Images, Olivier Douliery

How To Fix Gerrymandering: A Fair-Share Rule for Congressional Redistricting

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground. ~ Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Col. Edward Carrington, Paris, 27 May 1788

The Problem We Face

The U.S. House of Representatives was designed as the chamber of Congress most directly tethered to the people. Article I of the Constitution mandates that seats be apportioned among the states according to population and that members face election every two years—design features meant to keep representatives responsive to shifting public sentiment. Unlike the Senate, which prioritizes state sovereignty and representation, the House translates raw population counts into political voice: each House district is to contain roughly the same number of residents, ensuring that every citizen’s vote carries comparable weight. In principle, then, the House serves as the nation’s demographic mirror, channeling the diverse preferences of the electorate into lawmaking and acting as a safeguard against unresponsive or oligarchic governance.

Nationally, the mismatch between the overall popular vote and the partisan split in House seats is small, with less than a 1% tilt. But state-level results tell a different story. Take Connecticut: Democrats hold all five seats despite Republicans winning over 40% of the statewide vote. In Oklahoma, the inverse occurs—Republicans control every seat even though Democrats consistently earn around 40% of the vote.

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Once Again, Politicians Are Choosing Their Voters. It’s Time for Voters To Choose Back.
A pile of political buttons sitting on top of a table
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

Once Again, Politicians Are Choosing Their Voters. It’s Time for Voters To Choose Back.

Once again, politicians are trying to choose their voters to guarantee their own victories before the first ballot is cast.

In the latest round of redistricting wars, Texas Republicans are attempting a rare mid-decade redistricting to boost their advantage ahead of the 2026 midterms, and Democratic governors in California and New York are signaling they’re ready to “fight fire with fire” with their own partisan gerrymanders.

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Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

Wilson Deschine sits at the "be my voice" voter registration stand at the Navajo Nation annual rodeo, in Window Rock.

Getty Images, David Howells

Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

On July 24, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Circuit Court order in a far-reaching case that could affect the voting rights of all Americans. Native American tribes and individuals filed the case as part of their centuries-old fight for rights in their own land.

The underlying subject of the case confronts racial gerrymandering against America’s first inhabitants, where North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting reduced Native Americans’ chances of electing up to three state representatives to just one. The specific issue that the Supreme Court may consider, if it accepts hearing the case, is whether individuals and associations can seek justice under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). That is because the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, contradicting other courts, said that individuals do not have standing to bring Section 2 cases.

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