Voting rights

An elections worker scans mail-in ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Nov. 7, 2022, in Phoenix. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

State election officials at U.S. Senate hearing discuss threats to workers, call for funding

BY: - March 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — Election officials on Tuesday detailed to the U.S. Senate Rules Committee how their states countered threats to election workers and worked to combat misinformation and disinformation during the 2022 midterm election. With the 2024 presidential election closely approaching, Senate Rules Committee Chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she was concerned about threats to election […]

(SDI Productions/Getty Images)

Noncitizens allowed to vote in some local elections, spurring backlash from GOP

BY: - March 15, 2023

A few cities and towns around the U.S. are letting noncitizens vote in local elections, and more could follow. In response, Republicans see a chance to turn opposition to noncitizen voting into a national rallying cry. On March 14, Washington, D.C., became the latest city to approve noncitizen voting, when a bill allowing the District’s […]

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently announced a new bill to standardize and modernize state voting records, but the first-of-its-kind legislation was developed with help from a think tank that is leading the charge nationally for more restrictive voting rules. (Susan Tebben/Ohio Capital Journal)

Trump ‘White House in waiting’ helped develop Ohio voting bill touted as model for states

BY: - March 9, 2023

A new bill announced by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to standardize and modernize state voting records is being welcomed by election administrators and some voter advocates, who say it could increase transparency and confidence in elections. But the first-of-its-kind legislation was developed with help from a think tank that is leading the charge […]

COMMENTARY
A vote-here sign, pictured on Nov. 8, 2022, at the All Souls Church on Cliff Avenue in Sioux Falls. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

Republicans trying to inject integrity into an election system already dripping with it

BY: - February 26, 2023

It seems that South Dakotans should be upset about the integrity of their elections. If the long list of bills in the current session of the Legislature is any indication, our elections are all fouled up. A recent South Dakota Searchlight story noted that there were 43 — count ’em, 43 — election-related pieces of […]

Republican nominee for Michigan secretary of state Kristina Karamo campaigns in Lansing on Aug. 27, 2022. (Allison R. Donahue)

Election deniers who lost secretary of state races now run several state GOP operations

BY: - February 24, 2023

Many of the election deniers who ran last year for positions that would have given them control over state elections systems lost their races. But several have found a new path to exert influence: as chair of their state Republican Party.  On Saturday, Kristina Karamo, an activist who rose to prominence for her efforts to […]

The village of Lower Brule on the Lower Brule Reservation, near the Big Bend of the Missouri River. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Lawsuit brings tribe a seat on county commission

BY: - December 7, 2022

A county commissioner in South Dakota will resign and be replaced by a Native American tribal member as the result of a voting rights lawsuit. The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe filed the lawsuit against Lyman County in May. Much of the tribe’s reservation is within the county, on the western bank of the Missouri River […]