The partisan divide is getting worse
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A voter fills out her ballot at a Salida, Calif., polling place on Election Day 2018. The 52 percent turnout for the midterm elections far exceeded the 33 percent turnout in 2014.
Top 5 numbers from the bible of the 2018 election
The Election Administration and Voting Survey, published after every federal election since 2004, is the numerical bible of all things electoral.
Clocking in at 251 pages, the newly released report on the 2018 midterm elections doesn't lack for interesting statistical tidbits.
Here then are five of the most interesting nuggets from the report, issued by the Election Assistance Commission.
- 120 million Americans – 52 percent of voting-age citizens – cast a ballot. That's a huge jump from the 2014 midterms, when turnout was 33 percent.
- The states with the highest turnout were Minnesota (64.2 percent) and Colorado (63.8) percent. The lowest turnout was in Arkansas (35.8 percent) and Hawaii (38.9 percent).
- Alaska, Kentucky and the District of Columbia all report having more people on their voter rolls than in the Census estimates of their voting age population – an undeniable sign their records are not up to date.
- While more than half of Americans who voted did so on Election Day, one-quarter voted by mail and another one-fifth voted in-person at early voting sites.
- More than 200,000 polling sites were in use on Election Day, staffed by more than 600,000 poll workers. Still, a survey of election officials included in the report found 70 percent stating that it was "very difficult" or "somewhat difficult" to find enough poll workers.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a trio of democracy reform bills this week.
California governor signs three political reform bills
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Tuesday three democracy reform bills focused on local redistricting, voting access and campaign contributions.
The first piece of legislation prohibits partisan gerrymandering at the local level by establishing criteria for cities and counties to use when adjusting district boundaries. While California is the largest state to use an independent redistricting commission to draw its congressional and state district maps, local districts did not have the same regulations.
Gov. Ralph Northam used his executive authority to restore voting rights for felons, noting that Virginia is among the states that permanently strips such rights after a felony conviction.
Virginia governor restores voting rights to over 22,000 felons
More than 22,000 Virginians with felony convictions have regained the right to vote thanks to executive actions taken by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam since he took office in January 2018, his office announced this week.
In a statement, Northam's office said he has so far restored the civil rights of 22,205 people who had been convicted of felonies and have since completed their sentences. Those civil rights include the right to vote as well as the right to serve on juries, run for public office and become a notary public.
Northam previously announced in February that nearly 11,000 convicted felons had their voting rights restored under his watch.