voting rights
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Republicans to Drop $20 Million to Prevent Black People From Voting
It’s essentially an open secret that Republicans have to cheat to win. With the go-ahead from federal courts, the party is prepared to do just that. Vice reports that the Republican Party intends to spend $20 million to recruit a network of up to 50,000 volunteers to monitor poll locations. In 2018, a federal court…
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Democrats File Lawsuit to Make Absentee Mail-In Voting Accessible to Everyone During Pandemic
One issue that comes up repeatedly as the coronavirus pandemic interferes with the 2020 election season is how to ensure that people can vote safely. While Republicans seem hellbent on forcing voters to choose between risking their health to vote in person or staying home and not voting at all, Democrats have filed a lawsuit…
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Wisconsin Judge Daniel Kelly Lost His Election. Now He Wants to Take Part in Deciding Whether Voters Should Be Purged
Justice Daniel Kelly lost his Wisconsin Supreme Court seat to Jill Karofsky after getting his ass handed to him in the state’s primary election on April 7. Now, Kelly is indicating that he may rejoin a case that could end in the purging of more than 200,000 Wisconsin voters. According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kelly…
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Federal Appeals Court Allows Block on Florida Law That Makes Voting Harder for Ex-Felons
Limiting access to voting has long been a battle the GOP is willing to fight. Even when the people vote to ease restrictions on the act, the GOP comes through with a law that basically says “Sike, lol, you thought.” Florida’s latest attempt at voter suppression has, for the time being, been put on hold.…
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Texas Upholds Draconian Conviction for Woman Who Cast an 'Illegal Vote' in 2016: 'It's a Tragedy'
Crystal Mason, sentenced to five years in prison for casting an illegal ballot, had her appeal denied by a Texas judge last week. As the Texas Tribune reports, on Thursday, a three-judge appellate panel affirmed Mason’s conviction for casting an illegal ballot in the 2016 presidential election. Mason, who was on probation for a federal…
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'Selma Online' Offers Free Civil Rights Lessons in Response to Lack of Comprehensive Black History Curriculums
For its importance in American history, the civil rights movement is not covered with great depth in many k-12 curricula. Case in point: “Bloody Sunday”—during which Martin Luther King, Jr. and scores of nonviolent protesters were violently attacked by police during their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.—is frequently omitted from social studies lessons in…
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Cook County Jail Will Become a Polling Station for Pretrial Detainees
As of late, it feels as if states are making it harder and harder for people to exercise their right to vote. The state of Illinois, at least, seems to be doing quite the opposite. The Washington Post reports that the Cook County jail will operate as a polling precinct for the first time for…
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Texas Man Waits Six Hours in Line to Cast Vote on Super Tuesday
Republicans have consistently done their best to rig elections in their favor, often at the expense of black voters. If it’s not racially biased gerrymandering it’s closing polling stations in predominately black neighborhoods. Despite their best efforts, one Texas man would not be deterred from exercising his right to vote. Houston Public Media reports that…
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Texas Has Closed Hundreds of Polling Stations—Most of Them in Places Where Black and Latinx Populations Are Growing
Racial demographic changes in Texas over the last decade have led political experts and activists to view the state, once considered a conservative stronghold, as a battleground state. But as Texas’ electoral power becomes increasingly contested, polling stations have closed at a pace that has eclipsed every other state in the country. As reported by…
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Rihanna Wants People to Know It's Imperative That We Use Our Voices
Rihanna, a woman of and for the people, received the President’s Award at last night’s 51st annual NAACP Image Awards and used her voice, yet again, to speak truth to power. After her stunning speech urging viewers not to become desensitized to problems in the world, Rihanna took some time backstage to talk to The…