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How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies
This report was corrected on Nov. 27 at 4:17 p.m. to more accurately reflect the nature of Nina Jankowicz’s public comments about the Hunter Biden laptop. Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that […]
As states hunt for new voters, Massachusetts adds thousands via Medicaid applications
Massachusetts saw a more-than-fivefold jump in voter registration applications through social service agencies in the last election cycle, new federal data shows. The striking increase comes after the state implemented an automatic voter registration system that includes Medicaid applicants. Any eligible voter in the state who applies for Medicaid is automatically added to the rolls, […]
A top GOP lawyer wants to crack down on the college vote. States already are.
A top Republican election lawyer recently caused a stir when she told GOP donors that the party should work to make it harder for college students to vote in key states. But the comments from Cleta Mitchell, who worked closely with then-President Donald Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election, are perhaps less surprising […]
U.S. elections official takes part in secretive GOP conference, sparking backlash
This report has been updated on April 18, 2023 at 12:32 p.m. to clarify that the Election Assistance Commission is subject to the federal ethics code for executive branch employees. A commissioner of a federal elections agency recently spoke at a secretive conference of conservative voting activists and Republican secretaries of state and congressional staff […]
Federal agencies lag in registering voters despite Biden executive order, advocates say
Within weeks of taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order – hailed by voter advocates as potentially transformative – that for the first time committed the U.S. government to registering new voters at federal agencies. But just over two years later, most of the 10 agencies examined in a recent report […]
Noncitizens allowed to vote in some local elections, spurring backlash from GOP
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 […]
Five election deniers who are controlling state voting systems
Americans concerned about the health of democracy breathed a sigh of relief when a pack of election deniers in 2022 lost their attempts to control voting in key battleground states – making it unlikely that a rogue state election official could subvert the 2024 presidential election. Candidates for secretary of state who denied the result […]