News
MTV launches campaign for more polling stations on campuses
College students represent a crucial voting bloc in the election, but for many young people voting isn't readily accessible.
A group of organizations promoting youth voting is partnering with MTV to change that. Launched last week, +1 the Polls is a first-of-its-kind campaign that aims to ease voting for students by establishing new polling locations on college campuses across the country.
The 2018 midterm election saw a massive increase in voter turnout from college students: More than 40 percent of them voted, double what happened in the midterm four years before. Expectations for youth turnout are similar, if not higher, for this year's presidential election — especially since Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, boosted by significant support from younger voters, has surged forward as the Democratic front-runner.
Georgia's new voting machines may violate privacy laws
There's now a second front in the battle over Georgia's new electronic voting machines. Already under fire for its version of a paper audit trail, the system is now wrapped up in a lawsuit for its use of voting touchscreens that are so big and so bright that some may be able to see how others are voting.
The plaintiffs, including the Colorado-based Coalition for Good Governance, say the screens violate Georgia's ballot secrecy provisions because they can be read as far as 30 feet away.
They are asking a state court to act immediately by requiring the use of paper ballots in the runoff election for a state Senate seat. Early in-person voting for that race began Monday and March 3 is election day.
The plaintiffs argue it is not simply a matter of changing the brightness of the computers, the angle of the screens or the type size. And the state cannot solve the problem by simply hanging curtains because Georgia law bans anything like a booth or curtain around the voting devices that would prevent election officials from overseeing the voting process.
Arizona's independent redistricting panel faces a partisan intervention
Republicans in charge of the Arizona Legislature are hoping to restrict the powers of the state's independent redistricting commission before the new maps are drawn next year.
At issue is just how close to identical in population the state's legislative districts should be. A variation of as much as 10 percent had been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, and at the start of this decade the independent panel used that benchmark— which means about 20,000 people in Arizona — in order to create several reliably Democratic districts where Latinos and Native Americans were very likely to get elected.
GOP lawmakers are now pushing a measure that would limit the population differential to 5,000 in the coming decade, hoping that would help them secure more seats and grow their narrow majorities at the statehouse in Phoenix.
Election security demands a White House cybersecurity coordinator, report says
Installing someone at the White House to oversee election security is critical for unifying the government's efforts to combat threats to future elections, a study released Tuesday contends.
The report by The New Center, a nonpartisan think tank, offered five recommendations for improving election security. Topping the list was reappointing someone to serve as White House cybersecurity coordinator. The position on the National Security Council was eliminated in 2018 when John Bolton was national security advisor and sought to "streamline" the council. Lawmakers from both parties questioned the move.
Previously, the coordinator served to unify cybersecurity activities across various federal agencies, a vital role for ensuring an effective response to cyber threats, the report argues.
Debate
Polarization is more of a cultural problem than a political one
"Our constitutional system was designed with compromise as its cornerstone. But compromise has now become a dirty word," argues Steve McIntosh, president of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a Colorado think tank focused on the cultural roots of America's political problems, and author of the new book: "Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself" (Paragon House).
Community
Lansing Accountability Project Town Hall
Join Voters Not Politicians on March 5 to discuss Michigan's last-in-the-nation integrity rating and how voters can work for policies that fight corruption, hold politicians accountable, and bring integrity to state government.