News
Winner-take-all electoral vote system is constitutional, appeals court says
Republicans in California and Democrats in Texas might not like how their state awards electoral votes, but the winner-take-all system used in 48 states is constitutional, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The League of United Latin American Citizens has challenged the winner-take-all system for awarding the 38 votes from Texas, the second biggest Electoral College prize, arguing it violates the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and freedom of association to voters from the losing political party. (That's been the state's Democrats in 10 straight presidential contests and is likely to be them again this fall.)
LULAC has filed similar suits in California, Massachusetts and South Carolina in the hopes of compelling states to award electoral votes proportionally based on popular vote totals, a form of the system now used only in Nebraska and Maine.
Strict ID laws threaten transgender voting rights, study signals
Some 378,000 transgender voters could be blocked from casting ballots this fall because their names, appearances or gender identities don't match their driver's licenses or other identification, a California think tank estimates.
The figure is about one-quarter of 1 percent of the national electorate, a relatively tiny share that could nonetheless be dispositive in an extremely close presidential election — especially if trans voters get turned away in battleground states. Wisconsin, Arizona, Ohio and Georgia, for example, have some of the most restrictive laws among the 35 states requiring voters to show ID at their polling places.
"Especially in states that require an ID to be shown, this could result in some transgender voters being disenfranchised," said Jody Herman, a researcher who compiled the report released Thursday by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
Gaetz looks to be first House Republican swearing off PAC money
If there is one area of common ground that Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump's fiercest defenders at the Capitol, can find with Democrats, it's his newfound distaste for political action committees.
Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, the combative second-term Republican from Florida announced his campaign would no longer accept PAC money. While making a similar hands-off pledge has become something of a badge of honor for Democratic candidates and junior House members, Gaetz says he's become the first GOP member of Congress to make such a promise — and he appears to be correct.
No need to dim the lights on new voting machines, Georgia judge rules
A Georgia judge has rejected a legal challenge to the state's new voting machines from a group that argued the touchscreens are so big and bright that they violated privacy rules.
The decision means more than $100 million worth of new voting equipment may be used across the state starting Monday, when early voting begins in the Democratic presidential primary.
Earlier this week, the Colorado-based Coalition for Good Governance and others asked for an emergency order requiring paper ballots to be used in a runoff election for a state Senate seat and the state's presidential primary.
Another poll finds voters filled with angst about election security
Another day, another poll finding voters worried about the integrity of this year's election.
This one is from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and it found:
- 45 percent are extremely or very concerned that foreign governments will tamper with voting systems or election results.
- 47 percent are extremely or very concerned about foreign governments influencing what Americans think about candidates.
- 45 percent are extremely or very concerned about foreign governments stealing information from political parties and candidates.
Meet the reformers: Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen, buddies who argued until they hit on a common idea
Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen have been friends since middle school in New Canaan, a tiny Connecticut suburb of New York, where they indulged their shared passion for debating politics, economics and other current events. Bond was a distance runner at Princeton and then spent 30 years as an information technology entrepreneur, software developer and industry analyst. Olsen went to Principia College and got an MBA from UCLA before launching his career in investment management, fund management and real estate investment.
On a joint family vacation in 2009, while bemoaning the angry tenor of public discourse, they landed on the concept for their organization. Common Ground Committee's main work is hosting public forums where prominent figures from opposing ends of the political spectrum reveal their shared areas of agreement on an often polarizing public policy issue. Their answers have been edited for clarity and length.
What's democracy's biggest challenge, in 10 words or less?
Both: The inability of elected officials to overcome emotion with reason.
Debate
Could the presidential debates look different this fall?
"As it stands now, if the president chooses not to debate the Democratic nominee, it is much more likely that no debates will be held, thus denying voters an opportunity to hear from the candidates," writes Shawn Griffiths of Independent Voter News.
Presidential outcome may portend the Senate filibuster's finish
"The delay tactic of filibustering was actually an accident of history that came about in 1807," write Michael Golden of the Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy and lawyer Emmet Bondurant.
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