Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The state of voting: Dec. 5, 2022

voting legislation updates

This weekly update summarizing legislative activity affecting voting and elections is powered by the Voting Rights Lab. Sign up for VRL’s weekly newsletter here.

The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,213 bills so far this session, with 583 bills that tighten voter access or election administration and 1,061 bills that expand the rules. The rest are neutral, mixed or unclear in their impact.

Georgia is conducting its first runoff general election since a state law truncated the runoff timeline. Among stories lauding historic single-day turnout numbers are many detailing hours-long lines and the fact that thousands of mail ballots were sent too late for voters to return them by the required deadline.

Elsewhere, lawmakers in Missouri prefiled legislation to restore voting eligibility to people with past felony convictions immediately upon release from incarceration. Rhode Island’s incoming secretary of state named same-day registration legislation and the implementation of a new online mail ballot request system as his top priorities in 2023.

Looking ahead: After postponing consideration of the bill last week, an Ohio House committee may hear legislation this week that would restrict mail voting, limit secretary of state authority, and make the state’s voter ID law stricter.

Here are the details:

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter


Georgia’s new truncated runoff period leads to long lines, delayed mail ballots. In the first runoff general election since last year’s S.B. 202 was enacted, voters across Georgia experienced hours-long lines at early voting locations, including multiple days of three-hour lines in Savannah. S.B. 202 cut the time between the November election and the runoff in half, reduced the number of required early voting days for runoff elections from 17 to five, and eliminated all required weekend days – though some counties did choose to offer the option. The new law also made it a felony to provide food and beverages to voters waiting in line.

In addition to long lines, the truncated timeline seems to have also resulted in problems with mail voting. In Cobb County, part of the Atlanta metro area, thousands of mail ballots were not sent out to voters until eight days before Election Day, which is the deadline for receipt of completed ballots by election officials. On Friday, a Cobb County Superior Court judge issued an injunction ordering the county to accept ballots received by Dec. 9, three days after runoff election day, so long as they were postmarked by the close of polls.

Ohio House committee may move a restrictive elections bill this week. Last week the Ohio House of Representatives’ Government Oversight Committee postponed consideration of a substitute to H.B. 294 that would restrict acceptable forms of voter ID, limit secretary of state authority, prohibit prepaid postage for mail ballots and remove provisions from the bill establishing automatic voter registration, among other changes. The committee is expected to hold additional hearings this week.

Prefiled legislation in Missouri would restore voting eligibility to people with past felony convictions. H.B. 248 would restore the ability to vote for people with past felony convictions upon release from incarceration. The Senate companion bill has not yet been assigned a bill number. Under current Missouri law, people with past felony convictions may not vote until they complete all relevant terms of parole and probation. If this legislation passes, Missouri will join the 23 other states where people with past felony convictions may vote immediately upon release from incarceration.

Incoming Rhode Island secretary of state cites same-day registration and online mail ballot requests as priorities. Secretary of State-elect Gregg Amore named legislation establishing same-day registration and the implementation of an online mail ballot request system, already authorized by this year’s S.B. 2007, as his top priorities.

Read More

As Trump policy changes loom, nearly half of farmworkers lack legal status

Immigrant farm workers hoe weeds in a farm field of produce.

Getty Images//Rand22
Bird Flu and the Battle Against Emerging Diseases

A test tube with a blood test for h5n1 avian influenza. The concept of an avian flu pandemic. Checking the chicken for diseases.

Getty Images//Stock Photo

Bird Flu and the Battle Against Emerging Diseases

The first human death from bird flu in the United States occurred on January 6 in a Louisiana hospital, less than three weeks before the second Donald Trump administration’s inauguration. Bird flu, also known as Avian influenza or H5N1, is a disease that has been on the watch list of scientists and epidemiologists for its potential to become a serious threat to humans.

COVID-19’s chaotic handling during Trump’s first term serves as a stark reminder of the stakes. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, last year, 66 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu were reported in the United States. That is a significant number when you consider that only one case was recorded in the two previous years.

Keep ReadingShow less
People voting
LPETTET/Getty Images

Attention must be paid to working and retired Americans

There is no question that the Democratic Party has lost touch with the working class. Candidates actually rarely use the phrase "working class," while they never stop saying "middle class." Working class, to most Democrats, feels like a pejorative term. Everyone, after all, wants to rise up to the middle class, which makes up 50 percent of the country.

The 35 percent of the public who fit into the working class, in Rodney Dangerfield's terms, don't get no respect.

Keep ReadingShow less
USA China trade war and American tariffs as opposing cargo freight containers in conflict as an economic and diplomatic dispute over import and exports concept as a 3D illustration.
wildpixel/Getty Images

Are Trump's tariffs good for the economy or will they increase prices?

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office, there is much talk about tariffs as the foundation for his economic policy. Trump himself says he’s “a Tariff Man,” and in fact implemented tariffs on a number of countries in his first term. But what are tariffs exactly, and how do they work? What are the pros and cons?

There’s a lot at stake, and like many things “economic,” it’s kind of complicated. So let’s break it down.

Keep ReadingShow less