Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The state of voting: Sept. 19, 2022

voting legislation updates
The state of voting: Sept. 12, 2022
The state of voting: Sept. 12, 2022

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 2,197 bills so far this session, with 581 bills that tighten voter access or election administration and 1,050 bills that expand the rules. The rest are neutral, mixed or unclear in their impact.

The Midwest was home to the latest legal maneuvering of election rules last week, while a court opinion in Delaware delivered mixed results for voting rights advocates in the First State.

In Michigan, a court upheld state statutes that prohibit some types of voter assistance and a Wisconsin group filed a new lawsuit challenging the state’s use of the federal voter registration form. The Delaware ruling prohibits voters from voting by mail this election, unless they have a specifically enumerated reason but upheld the state’s new same-day registration law.

Looking ahead: The North Carolina Supreme Court is expediting a challenge to the state’s 2018 voter ID law. The state’s highest court will hear the case in October and determine the law’s fate prior to the November election. A lower court struck down the law, finding it intentionally discriminated against Black voters.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Here are the details:


Delaware court blocks no-excuse mail voting, but upholds same-day voter registration. Earlier this summer, Delaware enacted new laws creating no-excuse mail voting and same-day registration. Both laws were challenged in court. On Wednesday, Vice Chancellor Nathan Cook of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion enjoining the state’s Department of Elections from offering no-excuse mail voting for this November’s general election, finding that the law likely violates the state’s Constitution. Cook wrote that he was bound by judicial precedent to come to this conclusion, but that if he were looking at the issue “on a blank slate,” his finding would be different. No-excuse mail voting was established earlier this year by S.B. 320. In a consolidated opinion, Cook also dismissed the challenge to the state’s new same-day registration law, which was enacted by H.B. 25.

Federal court upholds unusual Michigan laws that prohibit certain types of voter assistance. A federal district court denied challenges to unusual Michigan statutes that prohibit hiring transportation to the polls for most voters and prohibit people who are not registered voters from assisting with absentee ballot applications. In the past, the challenged transportation law has been an obstacle for third-party organizations providing rides to voters without easy access to public transportation, rideshare apps offering discounted or free rides for voters, and organized voting efforts like “Souls to the Polls.”

Wisconsin group sues to prevent the state from using the federal voter registration form. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has filed another lawsuit to restrict voting access. After successfully ending Wisconsin Election Commission guidance authorizing drop boxes and allowing spouses and friends to return ballots for one another – and winning another case that will disenfranchise some eligible voters this November – WILL is now attacking the WEC’s approval of the federal voter registration form. WILL argues the form violates state law and cannot be used. Although the National Voter Registration Act requires most states to accept the federal form, Wisconsin is exempt because it offered same-day registration when that law was enacted. WILL is not challenging the registration of the people who previously used the form.

Read More

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
H-1B Visas, Cultural Failures, Weapons of Economic War

Illustrative picture showing application for USA H1B visa

Getty Images//Stock Photo

H-1B Visas, Cultural Failures, Weapons of Economic War

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy both came out recently in favor of expanding the H-1B visa program. This program allows large corporations to claim they cannot find adequate skilled talent (engineers for example) and sponsor a foreign worker to enter the United States to fill the required role.

The program itself is rife with abuse and inevitably and negatively affects American citizens by adding to the supply of talent and inevitably decreasing the price of such talent (wages).

Keep ReadingShow less
Finding meaning in a tragedy that defies understanding

A barn burning during a wildfire.

Getty Images//Photographer: David Odisho/Bloomberg

Finding meaning in a tragedy that defies understanding

The devastation caused by the recent fires in Los Angeles has been heartbreaking. The loss of life and property, and the grief that so many are experiencing, remind us of the vulnerability of everything in life.

Nothing is permanent. There are no guarantees for tomorrow. We are all so fragile and that fragility so often leads to breaking. And it hurts.

Keep ReadingShow less
Biden and Trump Take Credit For Gaza Ceasefire

Palestinians gather to celebrate after the announcement of an cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Ramallah, West Bank on January 15, 2025.

(Photo by Issam Rimawi /Anadolu via Getty Images)

Biden and Trump Take Credit For Gaza Ceasefire

WASHINGTON— On Wednesday, both U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump took credit for a ceasefire-for-hostages agreement related to the conflict in Gaza. This deal, which had been in the works for several months, received additional support from an envoy associated with Trump, helping to facilitate its completion.

In announcing the ceasefire, Biden noted the final deal largely mirrored the framework of a proposal he made back in May, Reuters reported. He smiled when a reporter asked who the history books will credit for the ceasefire and asked, "Is that a joke?"

Keep ReadingShow less