Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

The 24 states that have already made voting in November easier

USA map with flags
FotografiaBasica/Getty Images

With fewer than a hundred days to the presidential election, almost half the states have now altered some normal laws or regulations to make casting a ballot easier and safer in light of the coronavirus.

Most of the changes so far, but not all of them, are designed to promote voting by mail — the healthiest way to exercise the franchise this year, but a practice President Trump falsely alleges is an incubator of fraud.

Other states may yet modify their regulations, either voluntarily or as a consequence of one of the myriad lawsuits being pressed by voting rights groups. But time to implement changes is dwindling, fewer than 14 weeks, so the time seems ripe to look at the broad array of significant changes already locked down in these 24 states:


24 states that have changed their voting procedures for November due to coronavirus pandemicSource: Ballotpedia

In the most populous state, California (39.5 million), and the second-least populous state, Vermont (624,000), the solidly Democratic legislatures have voted to send every registered voter an absentee ballot while also providing for in-person voting. For at least this year, they will join the five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — that now send everyone a ballot for all elections.

Eight states are planning to send absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters this fall as a way of encouraging as many people as possible to vote-by-mail in November. Three on this roster — Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa — look to be hotly contested in the presidential race. The others are reliably blue Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland and New Mexico.

Five states have relaxed their normally restrictive rules, mandating a specific excuse for voting at home, to add fear of coronavirus infection as a valid rationale for obtaining an absentee ballot. New Hampshire is on the like-to-have lists of both presidential campaigns, while former Vice President Joe Biden can count on winning Connecticut and Trump can count on carrying Arkansas, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Three states have gone even further and suspended the excuse requirement altogether for this fall: Solid blue Massachusetts along with reliably red Alabama and Missouri.

Seven states have made other easements to their election plans.

Minnesota residents may now provide, and receive, an unlimited amount of help from others when voting absentee.

Mississippi will allow people in quarantine, or caring for someone in quarantine, to vote in person before Election Day. It also will count mailed votes that arrive five days after the polls close (instead of before the polls close), so long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

North Carolina added the two weekends before the election to the period for in-person early voting and extended the time the polls would be open those days.

Oklahoma agreed to permit voters to include a copy of a photo ID with their absentee ballots instead of having to get their signature notarized or witnessed by two people.

Rhode Island has waived the usual requirement that mail ballots be notarized or have two witness signatures.

South Carolina has agreed to spend about $1 million to put postage on all the envelopes for returning absentee ballots.

Texas has extended by six days, to 19 days, the period for in-person early voting.

Read More

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra

Xavier Becerra Steps Back Into California Politics

Xavier Becerra is once again stepping onto familiar ground. After serving in Congress, leading California’s Department of Justice, and joining President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he is now seeking the governorship of his home state. His campaign marks both a return to local politics and a renewed confrontation with Donald Trump, now back in the White House.

Becerra’s message combines pragmatism and resistance. “We’ll continue to be a leader, a fighter, and a vision of what can be in the United States,” he said in his recent interview with Latino News Network. He recalled his years as California’s attorney general, when he “had to take him on” to defend the state’s laws and families. Between 2017 and 2021, Becerra filed or joined more than 120 lawsuits against the Trump administration, covering immigration, environmental protection, civil rights, and healthcare. “We were able to defend California, its values and its people,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
​Voting booths in a high school.

During a recent visit to Indianapolis, VP JD Vance pressed Indiana Republicans to consider mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Getty Images, mphillips007

JD Vance Presses Indiana GOP To Redraw Congressional Map

On October 10, Vice President JD Vance visited Indianapolis to meet with Republican lawmakers, urging them to consider redrawing Indiana’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The visit marked Vance’s third trip to the state in recent months, underscoring the Trump administration’s aggressive push to expand Republican control in Congress.

Vance’s meetings are part of a broader national strategy led by President Donald Trump to encourage GOP-led states to revise district boundaries mid-decade. States like Missouri and Texas have already passed new maps, while Indiana remains hesitant. Governor Mike Braun has met with Vance and other Republican leaders. Still, he has yet to commit to calling a special legislative session. Braun emphasized that any decision must ensure “fair representation for every Hoosier."

Keep ReadingShow less
A child looks into an empty fridge-freezer in a domestic kitchen.

The Trump administration’s suspension of the USDA’s Household Food Security Report halts decades of hunger data tracking.

Getty Images, Catherine Falls Commercial

Trump Gives Up the Fight Against Hunger

A Vanishing Measure of Hunger

Consider a hunger policy director at a state Department of Social Services studying food insecurity data across the state. For years, she has relied on the USDA’s annual Household Food Security Report to identify where hunger is rising, how many families are skipping meals, and how many children go to bed hungry. Those numbers help her target resources and advocate for stronger programs.

Now there is no new data. The survey has been “suspended for review,” officially to allow for a “methodological reassessment” and cost analysis. Critics say the timing and language suggest political motives. It is one of many federal data programs quietly dropped under a Trump executive order on so-called “nonessential statistics,” a phrase that almost parodies itself. Labeling hunger data “nonessential” is like turning off a fire alarm because it makes too much noise; it implies that acknowledging food insecurity is optional and reveals more about the administration’s priorities than reality.

Keep ReadingShow less
Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

U.S. President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

(Photo by Suzanne Plunkett - Pool / Getty Images)

Standing Up for Democracy Requires Giving the Other Side Credit When It Is Deserved

American political leaders have forgotten how to be gracious to their opponents when people on the other side do something for which they deserve credit. Our antagonisms have become so deep and bitter that we are reluctant to give an inch to our political adversaries.

This is not good for democracy.

Keep ReadingShow less