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How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

How Weak Federal Ethics Laws Enable Presidential Profiteering

The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

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Trump’s ‘Just for Fun’ War Talk Shows a Dangerous Trivialization

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of the Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House

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Bill would designate Jan. 24 as ‘Granny D Day’ in New Hampshire

Doris "Granny D" Haddock

Granny D became famous nationally after walking across the country to promote campaign finance reform.

Alex Wong/Getty Images
Sara Swann
By Sara SwannJan 24, 2020
Sara Swann

As a staff writer, Sara covers a variety of democracy reform issues, including voting rights, money in politics, gerrymandering and civic education. Prior to joining The Fulcrum in May 2019, Sara reported on local government on Maryland's Eastern Shore for the USA Today network. She is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Syracuse University.

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A New Hampshire lawmaker has proposed legislation to establish Jan. 24 as "Granny D Day" to honor the beloved political activist.

A Granite State native, Doris "Granny D" Haddock was known across the country for her dedication to campaign finance reform. She died at age 100 in 2010. Friday would have been her 110th birthday.

In 1999, at the age of 88, Granny D embarked on a 3,200-mile walk from California to Washington, D.C., to bring attention to the need for campaign finance reform. The journey ended with a rally at the Capitol 14 months later.

Six years later, Granny D ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, attempting to unseat Republican Judd Gregg. Although her bid was unsuccessful, she campaigned without accepting only small, individual contributions and garnered one-third of the vote after entering the race just before the filing deadline.

Democratic state Sen. Melanie Levesque introduced the bill on Tuesday, calling Granny D a "fierce activist who dedicated her life to defending democracy."

"Granny D recognized the importance of civic responsibility and encouraged people to practice their right to vote," the bill reads. "She was politically active throughout her life and called for honesty, transparency, and equality in politics."


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A clear breakdown of voter ID laws under the Constitution, federal statutes, and court rulings—plus analysis of new Trump administration proposals to impose nationwide voter identification requirements.

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Just the Facts: Voter ID, States’ Powers, and Federal Limits

The Fulcrum approaches news stories with an open mind and skepticism, presenting our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.


Few issues generate more heat and are less understood than voter ID.

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Javon Jackson, center, was able to register to vote following passage of a 2019 Nevada law that restored voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals.

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The Nation Is Missing Millions of Voters Due to Lack of Rights for Former Felons

If you gathered every American with a prison record into one contiguous territory and admitted it to the union, you would create the 12th-largest state. It would be home to at least 7 million to 8 million people and hold a dozen votes in the Electoral College.

In a close presidential race, this hypothetical state of the formerly incarcerated could decide who wins the White House.

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Stop Fighting Voter ID. Start Defining It.

President Trump doesn't need the SAVE America Act to pass. He only needs the debate to continue. Every minute spent arguing about voter suppression repeats the underlying premise — that noncitizen voting is a real and widespread problem — until it feels like an established fact. The question is whether Democrats will contest Republicans’ definition before the frame hardens.

Trump's claim that 88% of Americans support the bill traces to a Pew Research Center survey — a survey that found 83% support a “government-issued photo ID to vote,” not extreme vetting for proof of citizenship. That support included 95% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats, indicating genuine, broad, bipartisan support for a basic civic principle. That's worth taking seriously.

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The federal government seems to be barreling toward a federal election power grab. Trump's State of the Union address called for the Senate to push through the SAVE Act, which has already passed the House, in the name of so-called "election integrity." And the SAVE Act isn’t the only such bill. Like the SAVE Act, the Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act—introduced in the House—would require voters to provide a document outlined in the Act that allegedly proves their U.S. citizenship. We’ve been down this road before in Texas, and spoiler alert: it was unworkable.

Both the SAVE and MEGA Acts would disenfranchise millions of eligible U.S. citizens without making our federal elections more secure. They seek to roll out a faulty federal voter registration system, despite the existing separate registration and voting process for state and local elections. And these Acts target a minuscule “problem”—but would unleash mass voter purges and confusion.

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