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States Ask Social Media Titans to Drop TurboVote

The bipartisan association of state election officials is urging Facebook and Twitter to end their relationships with TurboVote, an independent nonprofit voter registration site, concluding its flaws outweighed its contributions to a surge in turnout for the 2018 midterm election.

The National Association of Secretaries of State, whose members oversee elections in all 50 states, says TurboVote occasionally failed to properly process registrations and sometimes failed to notify people who thought they had registered to vote but had not completed the requisite forms. The TurboVote website also crashed under the weight of significant user volume during a voter registration campaign in September. And according to Pro Publica, which reported the NASS request, TurboVote's operators were scammed by someone pretending to be an employee and seeking to convince newly registered voters to share personal information over the phone.


TurboVote, created in 2012 by the nonprofit organization Democracy Works, says it is working to fix its flaws but has helped "millions register and vote nationwide." NASS asked TurboVote to provide a detailed accounting of these registrants — new voters, not duplicates or people changing their address — but has yet to receive one.

The secretaries of state have asked the social media companies to direct prospective voters to government registration sites. Both Facebook and Twitter said they were taking the NASS request seriously but were not yet committed to ending their relationships with TurboVote.


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Only Trump doesn’t care about housing

A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.

(AFP via Getty Images)

Only Trump doesn’t care about housing

It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.

It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.

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Elks, Rotarians, and Both Party’s Lust for Control
A pole with a sign that says polling station
Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash

Elks, Rotarians, and Both Party’s Lust for Control

When it comes to the issue of open primaries, DSA true believers like Brad Lander in New York and MAGA mouthpieces like Governor Abbott in Texas sing from the same hymnal: open primaries invites mischief and party raiding. If we let independents vote we’d get pandemonium. Democracy needs guardrails, and political parties need integrity. You wouldn’t want Elks voting in Rotarians’ elections would you?

There is a certain logic to it. Except Abbott, Lander and all their fellow partisan warriors have it completely backwards.

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Storytelling Is Foundational to Keeping Our Democracy Intact
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Storytelling Is Foundational to Keeping Our Democracy Intact

The Fulcrum is committed to nurturing the next generation of journalists. To learn about the many NextGen initiatives we are leading, click HERE.

We asked Daniela Mattson, a student at the University of Southern California and a Fulcrum Fellowship cohort member, to share her thoughts on what democracy means to her and her perspective on its current health.

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Keeping Kids Safe Online?: Understanding the Debate Over AI Age Verification
boy in gray shirt using black laptop computer
Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

Keeping Kids Safe Online?: Understanding the Debate Over AI Age Verification

This nonpartisan policy brief, written by an ACE fellow, is republished by The Fulcrum as part of our partnership with the Alliance for Civic Engagement and our NextGen initiative — elevating student voices, strengthening civic education, and helping readers better understand democracy and public policy.

Key Takeaways

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