voter suppression
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Exclusive: A Powerful New Video From the Human Rights Campaign and Billy Porter Reminds Us Our Votes Do Matter
There has been so much trauma, violence, inhumanity and depraved indifference splashed across our screens in recent months, it’s often difficult to process it all—let alone the brutality we’ve become almost inured to over the past decade and those prior. But what we have been witnessing as of late is not only not new, it…
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Supreme Court Strikes Major Blow to Voting Rights, Won’t Change Florida Voting Rules for Felons
In 2018, Florida voters made a momentous decision: restoring the right to vote for those convicted of a felony, so long as they’ve fulfilled their prison time, parole or probation. But since then, the state of Florida has introduced what has been deemed as a modern-day voting tax for released felons, mandating that they pay…
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Mississippi to Vote on Changing Jim Crow Era Voting Law
Voting laws in this country are generally crafted to favor white people at the expense of everyone else. Whether it’s gerrymandering districts to the point where a court has to step in or closing down polling stations in predominantly Black areas, it’s sadly not uncommon to see the Black vote undermined. In Mississippi, voting rights…
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Civil Rights Orgs Blast Mark Zuckerberg as Audit Finds Facebook’s Weak Hate Speech Policies Are ‘Serious Setbacks for Civil Rights’
For the last two years, Facebook has touted a major civil rights audit as proof that it was taking seriously allegations that it was aiding the spread of hate and misinformation. The results of that report were released Wednesday morning, and while it praised the company for making some necessary improvements to its platform and…
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Mississippi Election Commissioner Complains That 'Blacks' Are Registering to Vote
An election commissioner in Mississippi claims her intent wasn’t to be racist despite posting on Facebook that she was concerned because “the Blacks” are having lots of voter registration events. According to a report from the Clarion Ledger, Jones County election commissioner Gail Harrison Welch is now pushing back at people who have questioned the…
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The Vote First-Look Clip: PBS Documentary on Black Women Being 'Moved to the Sidelines' of Suffrage Movement
2020 is a pivotal year for many reasons, one of those being that it’s a presidential election year. The discussion around voters’ rights and voter suppression have been recent hot topics, especially witnessing what has been happening in Kentucky as well as the ongoing push for the Senate to pass the HEROES Act. Following the…
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Beyoncé, Tina Knowles-Lawson and Mothers of the Movement Call Out 'Modern-Day Voter Suppression,' Urge Senate to Pass HEROES Act
Today, June 25, marks the 7th anniversary of the Shelby County v. Holder case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional. As we continue conversations surrounding voter suppression, especially given the issues surrounding the recent Democratic primary election in Kentucky, it is time to take…
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Long Lines for Black Voters Anticipated as Kentucky Cuts More than 95 Percent of Polling Places Ahead of Its Democratic Primary
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit earlier this spring, voting rights advocates have voiced concern over the country’s ability to operate free and fair elections. Tomorrow, all eyes will be on Kentucky, which will be running its most anticipated Democratic primary in years with only a sliver of in-person polling locations available. Instead of the typical…
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How to Save Our Voting Rights During the Pandemic
On Wednesday, President Trump attacked states like Michigan and Nevada for protecting voters’ from COVID-19 in upcoming elections by sending applications for absentee ballots. Voting by mail is a key way for states to protect voters’ health and safety, which states have a moral and legal obligation to do. It was yet another example of…