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Many Parkland survivors’ ballots went uncounted in 2018

Students who survived the mass shooting last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have become some of the most prominent and politically active gun control advocates in the country. But they seem to have had a tough time getting their votes counted.

Fully 15 percent of mail-in ballots cast by Parkland's college-age voters in last year's midterm election were rejected or failed to arrive in time to be counted, according to an analysis of state voting records by Daniel Smith, chairman of the political science department at the University of Florida. The statewide figure for voters 18 to 21 was 5.4 percent of mail-in ballots rejected or uncounted and the overall statewide share was 1.2 percent, Smith noted.


The numbers were reported by the Washington Post, which said the situation in Broward County highlighted questions about the fairness of the Florida electoral system, which includes a very struct signature match standard that some college-age voters clearly failed to meet. "If you are voting in Florida, and you are young in Florida, you have a good chance of your ballot not being accepted," the professor said. "Imagine going to the ATM, and every 10 times you go, instead of spitting out your money, they take it or they lose it."

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What can we learn in 2025 from the 100-year-old Scopes Trial?

Two groups of protesters, one blue and one red, marching with placards across an abstract American flag background.

Getty Images//Stock Photo

What can we learn in 2025 from the 100-year-old Scopes Trial?

Based on popular demand, the American Schism series will renew in 2025 with a look at science-based public policy caught in the crossfires of today’s culture wars.

Readers often send me comments on how this series effectively sheds light on our contemporary political divisions through careful examination and analysis of our own American history, since so many of our present issues are derivative of conflicts long brewing in our past. As I wrote last year on these pages, history can act as a salve for our present-day wounds if we apply it.

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Chicago South Siders impacted by air pollution can help shape future environmental policy
factory chimney emitting smoke
Photo by Ria on Unsplash

Chicago South Siders impacted by air pollution can help shape future environmental policy

Communities in the southwest and southeast sides of Chicago impacted by the adverse effects of air pollution from truck traffic, warehouses, and factory operations have the opportunity to change their future. But what exactly are they experiencing, and how can they change it?

For the greater part of the last year, officials, including State Sen. Javier Cervantes (D-1) and 12th Ward Ald, Julia Ramirez and others from organizations such as the Environmental Defense Fund have been drafting Senate Bill 838. The bill aims to curb environmental injustices, such as air pollution caused by heavy truck traffic and industrial practices, that overburden Chicago’s Southwest and Southeast communities.

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Behind the “Lie of the Year,” some bitter truths

Diners watch as Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, debate for the first time during the presidential election campaign on September 10, 2024 at the Bar Tabac in New York City.

(Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

Behind the “Lie of the Year,” some bitter truths

As it has been doing yearly since 2009, the fact-checking organization PolitiFact has chosen the Lie of the Year (2024). There was an abundance of nominees.

And, it turns out, they chose the same whopper I identified as a top contender months ago: President-elect Donald Trump’s unfounded claim that Haitian migrants were eating the household pets of Springfield, Ohio.

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