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What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President

What You Should Know About Russ Vought, Trump’s Shadow President

A Trump 2020 flag outside of a home.

Trump’s 2.0 Actions Have Harmed Rural America Who Voted for Him

Indiana Republicans Could Lose at the Ballot over Redistricting Plan

Indiana Republicans Could Lose at the Ballot over Redistricting Plan

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Trump Declares War on Democratic Cities

Voting rights expanded for 80,000 former prisoners in New Jersey

Voting rights expanded for 80,000 former prisoners in New Jersey

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law Wednesday restoring the franchise to those on probation or parole.

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumDec 19, 2019
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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More than 80,000 people on parole or probation in New Jersey have had their voting rights restored.

Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Wednesday allowing formerly incarcerated felons to register to vote starting in March, well ahead of the state's presidential primary in June. The Democratic state Senate sent him the measure Wednesday following passage by the state House last month.

It's the latest in a growing roster of states that have expanded the political rights of people out of prison, a longtime cause of those in favor of both boosting turnout and promoting the reintegration of freed felons into society.

"These are residents who are living as full participants in their communities and yet have been needlessly prevented from having a voice in the future direction of their communities," Murphy said at a signing ceremony in Trenton.

Previously, the state required those convicted of criminal offenses to complete their post-release conditions before restoring their voting rights. New Jersey has now joined 16 states and Washington, D.C., in restoring the franchise upon release.

Murphy's signature is the latest in a string of actions taken in recent years in mostly Democratic states to restore voting rights to released felons, a significant portion of whom were disenfranchised by low-level drug possession convictions.

Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order right after taking office in Kentucky last week restoring voting rights to more than 140,000 nonviolent felons who had completed their sentences. Gov. Andrew Cuomo did the same last year for about 35,000 New Yorkers under parole supervision. And Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored voting rights to more than 170,000 nonviolent felons in Virginia from 2016 to 2018.

Also in 2018, Florida voters approved a state constitutional amendment to enfranchise an estimated 1.4 million released felons, leaving Iowa as the only state that permanently bars those with felony convictions from voting.

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U.S. President Barack Obama speaking on the phone in the Oval Office.

U.S. President Barack Obama talks President Barack Obama talks with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during a phone call from the Oval Office on November 2, 2009 in Washington, DC.

Getty Images, The White House

‘Obama, You're 15 Years Too Late!’

The mid-decade redistricting fight continues, while the word “hypocrisy” has become increasingly common in the media.

The origin of mid-decade redistricting dates back to the early history of the United States. However, its resurgence and legal acceptance primarily stem from the Texas redistricting effort in 2003, a controversial move by the Republican Party to redraw the state's congressional districts, and the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry. This decision, which confirmed that mid-decade redistricting is not prohibited by federal law, was a significant turning point in the acceptance of this practice.

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Gerrymandering silences communities and distorts elections. Proportional representation offers a proven path to fairer maps and real democracy.

Getty Images, bizoo_n

Gerrymandering Today, Gerrymandering Tomorrow, Gerrymandering Forever

In 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace declared, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." (Watch the video of his speech.) As a politically aware high school senior, I was shocked by the venom and anger in his voice—the open, defiant embrace of systematic disenfranchisement, so different from the quieter racism I knew growing up outside Boston.

Today, watching politicians openly rig elections, I feel that same disbelief—especially seeing Republican leaders embrace that same systematic approach: gerrymandering now, gerrymandering tomorrow, gerrymandering forever.

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

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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

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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