After successful Texas debut, tech-based voter registration platform goes national
News
After successful Texas debut, tech-based voter registration platform goes national
Having had remarkable success at signing people up to vote in Texas last year, an Austin group of activists is expanding its pilot program into a full-blown national effort to overcome the sometimes ignored first hurdle for people in the voting process — registration.
"There are millions of voters who are registered who don't get out to vote," said Christopher Jasinski, director of partnerships for Register2Vote. "But the unmeasured part of the pie is the actual number of unregistered voters."
N.C. legislators on course for on-time undoing of their partisan gerrymander
North Carolina's new state legislative district lines are on pace to be finished by Wednesday's court-imposed deadline after versions of the maps passed both chambers of the General Assembly.
The Senate's bipartisan, 38-9 vote happened Monday night. The House and Senate are now reviewing each other's maps, potentially making additional tweaks to some boundaries before they are forwarded for final approval to the three state judges in Raleigh who ordered the redistricting this month.
Democratic dysfunction comes with $4 billion bill
For those who believe the breakdown of American democracy has no cost beyond the aggravation of the citizenry, consider the figure $4 billion.
That's the minimum, measurable cost to taxpayers of the most recent three partial government shutdowns, according to a bipartisan report released Tuesday by a Senate panel.
Most of that money, $3.7 billion, went to back pay to federal workers who were furloughed during the shutdowns — and did not perform any work during that time. An additional $300 million-plus went for other costs that include extra administrative work and lost revenue.
Ditching QR codes, Colorado will count votes a more old-fashioned way
Colorado is dropping the use of QR codes from ballots statewide, saying the ubiquitous square bar codes are susceptible to hacking that could manipulate election results.
This will make Colorado, likely one of the most hotly contested states in the 2020 presidential contest and also home to one of next year's premier Senate races, the first state where all ballots get tabulated "using only human-verifiable information," officials said in an announcement Monday.
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Debate
Playing the long game for a civically engaged democracy
To truly have a representative democracy, the first step is getting people engaged, argues Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement executive director Kristen Cambell.
Community
It's time YOU draw the line! - Holt
Interested in joining the independent commission to draw Michigan's legislative lines? Join Voters Not Politicians on Sept. 19 to learn about the amendment that helped end partisan gerrymandering in Michigan and how you can get involved.