Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the NRA and Tom Hanks want you to register to vote

Politicians and celebrities take to Twitter on National Voter Registration Day

With the presidential election only 406 days away, and the first Democratic nominating contest only 132 days from now, efforts to register voters and encourage election participation have been full steam ahead. Tuesday marks National Voter Registration Day, and politicians and celebrities alike took to Twitter to promote the commemorative day.

Now in its seventh year, it's a nationwide effort by civic educators and state and local officials to boost awareness of registration opportunities — and get as many thousands of new people as possible added to the rolls almost simultaneously.


Among members of Congress, there was a stark difference in who encouraged voter registration, though. Only a few House Republicans tweeted about the holiday, while dozens of House Democrats rallied followers to register to vote.

In the Senate, however, party didn't play as big of a role in determining who celebrated the holiday. Four Republican and seven Democratic members marked the occasion with a tweet.

While President Donald Trump was mum on the subject as of 3:30 p.m., his sons Don Jr. and Eric both encouraged followers to register.

Barack and Michelle Obama also chimed in. And many celebrities also promoted National Voter Registration Day, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zooey Deschanel, Tom Hanks and Alyssa Milano.


















Read More

Person looking at computer screen at work.

Brenda Núñez, voter registration supervisor for Nueces County, shows the home screen of the state's voter registration system in 2024. Election officials say they're still struggling to use the system, known as TEAM, to complete essential tasks.

(==Gabriel Cárdenas for Votebeat

Election Officials Are Scrambling To Process Voter Registration Backlog Using a System They Say Does Not Work

At 6 p.m. a few days after the state sent Randall County election administrator Shannon Lackey a backlog of 3,388 of voter registration records, she was still at her desk, processing them after a full day of work.

She planned to stay late and get as much done as she could, then keep working from home. Lackey, whose department has five employees, isn’t expecting overtime pay or compensatory time off to make up for the extra work caused by the state error.

Keep ReadingShow less
multiethnic American voters participating in the US election, showcasing the concept of choice in a democracy

Presidents who lost the popular vote often faced economic turmoil. See the pattern from Harrison to Trump and how a 50-state strategy could change it.

Alan Mazzocco/Getty Images

Path Forward from Economic Consequences of Non-Popular Vote Presidents

While losing the popular vote does not inherently cause economic ruin, the structural political weakness of entering office without a democratic majority mandate often compounded the economic challenges their administrations faced. These terms were marked by distinct economic hardships, structural imbalances, or severe financial crises.

Destabilizing Partisan Protectionism

Keep ReadingShow less
people filling out their ballots at voting booths and submitting their vote.

Independent voters may hand Democrats control of Congress this fall — but as history shows, they'll get nothing in return. Here's how to change that.

Pressmaster/Getty Images

Swinging Outcomes Is Not Enough

The midterms are six weeks away, and polls predict that independent voters, who broke for Donald Trump in 2024, are planning on voting for Democrats by wide margins. Among Latinos, the numbers are staggering, to the point that the Republican gerrymanders in Florida and Texas may actually result in Democratic victories.

If the Democrats take control of Congress, it will be because of independents. And what do independents get in return?

Keep ReadingShow less
Diverse People At Voting Booth. Vote Here Elections Sign

A political scientist examines how automatic voter registration is quietly turning non-affiliation into America's largest voting bloc.

AndreyPopov/Getty Images

When Neither Party Is the Default: Rethinking Representation As America’s Electorate Changes

For most of my career as a political scientist, representation was the central theme of my teaching and research. Early on, I studied how legislators understood their responsibilities to constituents — whether they saw themselves as delegates carrying out constituent mandates, trustees exercising independent judgment, or politicos combining both. That work asked a question that still matters: What does it mean to represent the public in a changing democracy?

Today I find myself asking a related question: What happens when the electorate changes but the institutions built to represent it do not?

Keep ReadingShow less