Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Mail voting must be open to all Tennesseans during Covid, judge rules

Tennesssee voting

Voting two years ago in Brentwood, Tenn. Everyone in the state should be able to cast a mail ballot this year because of the pandemic, a judge has ruled.

William Deshazer/Getty Images

Every voter in Tennessee should be permitted to use an absentee ballot during the coronavirus pandemic, a state judge has ruled.

At least during the current public health emergency, Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle of Nashville decided Thursday, the current limits on voting by mail impose "an unreasonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution."

If the ruling survives an expected appeal, it would be a significant victory for the movement to assure solid turnout in the presidential election despite the Covid-19 outbreak.


Tennessee is one of 16 states that still require an "excuse" in order for people to vote absentee. All but a handful of them have eased those restrictions to encourage more remote voting this year on mail-in voting because of the coronavirus.

Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett has resisted joining them — saying the available reasons are sufficient and that opening mail voting to all Tenessseans would be impractically expensive to institute in time and would result in ballot fraud. Lyle rejected all those arguments and pointed to the "can-do approach" set by the other states.

Lyle noted that she was not mandating that all 4.1 million registered voters in the state automatically receive an absentee ballot as has been ordered in other states. Voters will still be required to make the request themselves.

Tennessee has more than a dozen categories that qualify someone for an absentee ballot, from being sick to being 60 or older. Still, only 2 percent of votes were cast by mail two years ago.

On Aug. 6 the state holds primary elections for congressional and state legislative seats and general elections for county offices.

The court's injunction is indefinite, meaning that it could also be in force for the Nov. 3 general election unless an appeals court intervenes. The state is reliably red, so President Trump can count on its 11 electoral votes. Turnout in the 2016 election was 62 percent, but may be less this year because of a lack of any competitive statewide races.

The judge ordered the state to publish on public websites, and tell county officials, that "voters who do not wish to vote in-person due to the Covid-19 virus situation are eligible to request an absentee ballot by mail."

"It is yet another court decision replacing legislation passed by the people's elected officials with its own judgment, largely ignoring the practicalities of implementing such a decision, and doing so in the midst of a pandemic and budget crisis," GOP Attorney General Herbert Slatery said in a statement promising to appeal.

Backed by GOP Gov. Bill Lee, the Republican-led General Assembly has blocked several measures from Democrats that would offer absentee ballots to all voters, including one just this week.

Read More

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.

Keep ReadingShow less
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.

Keep ReadingShow less
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

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.

Keep ReadingShow less
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.

Keep ReadingShow less