Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Voting improvements made, but issues remain in Georgia and Wisconsin

Wisconsin voters

Unlike the April presidential primary (above), Wisconsin kept most of its in-person polling locations open on Tuesday.

Andy Manis/Getty Images

Georgia and Wisconsin are hoping to bounce back from their problematic primaries earlier this year with another round of voting concluding Tuesday.

Both states have made adjustments since their first elections held during the coronavirus pandemic, but reports at midday from voting rights groups show some issues still remain. While the crowds at polling places were smaller, voters reported machine malfunctions and confusion over where they could cast a ballot in person.

Tuesday's elections were another indicator of what could happen in November, on a much larger scale, if states are not prepared and voters are not informed of changes.

Four other states — Connecticut, Minnesota, South Dakota and Vermont — had voting Tuesday, but no major problems were reported. These are the details in the two battleground states hoping to make their second rounds of primaries less problematic than the first.


Georgia

Unlike the June 9 primary, polling locations across the state did not have the same long lines due to the lower-turnout runoff election and increased use of absentee ballots. But malfunctioning voting machines remained an issue for those voting in person — particularly for those in Floyd, Gwinnett, Chatham and Fulton counties, which take in much of the Atlanta region and Savannah.

After buying new voting machines for every polling place in the state last year, Georgia has seen operational problems with them for three consecutive elections, which does not bode well for the presidential election, when the contest for Georgia's 16 electoral votes now looks to be a tossup.

"Georgia continues to fail voters by not ensuring these machines are up and running. This is gravely concerning for November," said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which monitors an election hotline for voters.

Tuesday's runoffs were conducted in 94 of Georgia's 159 counties, including the five most populous. Voters will determine who moves on to the general election in four congressional districts — there were a pair of runoffs in each party — as well as contests for dozens of seats in the General Assembly, a range of trial court judges and various county offices.

Turnout in November is expected to exceed 5 million.

To streamline mail ballot processing, the State Elections Board made two emergency rule changes Monday in preparation for a surge in absentee voting this fall. The first will allow election administrators to process, but not tabulate, mail ballots up to two weeks before Nov. 3. The other is the creation of an online portal, expected to launch within the next week, for voters to request absentee ballots.

Wisconsin

On April 7, last-minute election changes caused widespread confusion and chaos during primaries for president and a range of state offices, including a pivotal seat on the state Supreme Court. A shortage of poll workers in Milwaukee meant only five of the 180 polling locations were open, causing hours-long wait times — and widespread fear that the fight for Wisconsin's crucial 10 electoral votes would be severely tainted.

But for Tuesday's legislative and congressional primaries, the state's largest city had 95 percent of its usual polling locations open for in-person voting — and as a result wait times were not an issue, at least by the middle of the afternoon. The National Guard is also on standby in case of any staffing shortages.

There were fewer mail voting issues this time, but as of Tuesday morning more than 9,600 absentee ballots had yet to be delivered to voters who had requested them. And nearly 342,000 mail ballots that were delivered had not yet been returned. The state Elections Commission said voters who have not yet returned their absentee ballots must do so at their municipal clerk's office before the polls close at 8 p.m. in order to be counted.

Voting rights groups reported that some Wisconsinites were confused about where they could drop off their mail ballot or cast one in person due to lack of proper signage at polling locations and elections offices.

Read More

Mad About Politics? Blame Congress

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders celebrate after the vote on President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 3, 2025.

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Mad About Politics? Blame Congress

The judiciary isn’t supposed to be the primary check on the executive, the legislative branch is.

Whatever you think about American politics and government, whether you are on the right, the left or somewhere in the middle, you should be mad at Congress. I don’t just mean the Republican-controlled Congress — though, by all means, be mad at them — I mean the institution as a whole.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jennifer Greenfield Speaks Out for Colorado Families

Jennifer Greenfield Speaks Out for Colorado Families

When Jennifer Greenfield wrote an op-ed in The Denver Post warning that proposed federal budget cuts would devastate Coloradans who rely on programs like Medicaid and SNAP, she hoped her words might help change the conversation—and the outcome. Her piece drew a wave of responses, including appreciation from state leaders and an invitation to speak at a local event. Although the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” ultimately became law, Greenfield continues to warn about its long-term consequences. She spoke with SSN about the ripple effects of her op-ed and shared advice for fellow scholars who want their research to make a difference. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A with Jennifer Greenfield

You recently wrote an op-ed about the GOP’s budget bill. What message were you hoping to get across?

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. Capitol

James Madison foresaw factions tearing apart democracy. Today’s Congress, driven by partisanship and money, proves his warning true.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Our Amazing, Shrinking Congress

James Madison tried to warn us. He foresaw a grave danger to our fragile republic. No, it wasn’t an overreaching, dictatorial President. It was the people’s representatives themselves who might shred the untested constitutional fabric of the nascent United States.

Members of Congress could destroy it by neglecting the good of the country in favor of narrow, self-serving ends. Unity would collapse into endless internecine strife. Madison sounded this alarm in Federalist No. 10: he foresaw the inevitable emergence of “factions”—political parties “united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Most Patriotic of All?

Trump and the MAGA movement have twisted the meaning of patriotism. It’s time we collectively reclaim America’s founding ideals and the Pledge’s promise.

Getty Images, LeoPatrizi

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Most Patriotic of All?

Republicans have always claimed to be the patriotic party, the party of "America, right or wrong," the party willing to use force to protect American national interests abroad, the party of a strong military. In response, Democrats have not really contested this perspective since Vietnam, basically ceding the patriotic badge to the Republicans.

But with the advent of Donald Trump, the Republican claim to patriotism has gotten broader and more troubling. Republicans now claim to be the party that is true to our founding principles. And it is not just the politicians; they have support from far-right scholars at the Heritage Foundation, such as Matthew Spalding. The Democratic Party has done nothing to counter these claims.

Keep ReadingShow less