Red flag laws are increasingly being used to protect gun owners in crisis
Groups of mourners gather for a prayer vigil after a mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis in 2021. Indiana is one of 21 states that have a red flag law, which allow police and family...
View ArticleElection officials blast Trump’s ‘retreat’ from protecting voting against...
A polling location in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).The Trump administration has begun dismantling the nation’s defenses against foreign interference in voting, a sweeping...
View ArticleBlue states fear invasion by red-state National Guard troops for deportations
A Texas National Guard member observes as a federal Border Patrol agent pats down migrants who have surrendered themselves for processing. President Donald Trump wants to utilize the National Guard...
View ArticleLibrarians gain protections in some states as book bans soar
Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" is among the books being targeted nationwide by public school book bans (Max McCoy/Kansas Reflector).Karen Grant and fellow school librarians throughout New Jersey...
View ArticleJudges topple gun restrictions as courts chart an uncertain path forward
A pro-gun rights demonstrator carrying an AR-15 and a handgun stands outside of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville in August 2023. Assault weapons bans have faced more challenges in federal...
View ArticleElection denialism has staying power even after Trump’s win
Republicans’ disinformation campaigns have caused Americans’ confidence in elections to plummet and exposed local election officials to threats and harassment, and some observers worry about a return...
View ArticleRanked-choice voting faces cloudy future after election setbacks
Ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank political candidates by preference, is used statewide in Alaska and Maine and in major U.S. localities such as New York City and San Francisco (Melissa...
View ArticleRecent safeguards should quash efforts to overturn election results, experts say
Two election observers watch election workers at the Milwaukee Election Commission’s warehouse south of downtown during the August primary. The post-election period in swing states, including...
View Article‘Firehose’ of election conspiracy theories floods final days of the campaign
Lisa Posthumus Lyons, the Republican clerk for Kent County, Mich., has to remind voters that elections are run by people and mistakes can occur; it doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy. In the final days...
View ArticleIn the tightest states, new voting laws could tip the outcome in November
Voters in Grand Rapids, Mich., cast their ballots during the state’s August primary. LEFT: Michigan was one of the swing states that has greatly expanded voter access since 2020. (Matt...
View ArticleSwing states prepare for a showdown over certifying votes in November
An election observer monitors two poll workers processing absentee ballots in the Milwaukee Election Commission warehouse on Aug. 13. Discrepancies in the count could be used by county canvassing...
View ArticleIn small towns, even GOP clerks are targets of election conspiracies
A polling location in Jefferson City the morning of Aug. 6 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).PORT AUSTIN, Mich. — Deep in the thumb of Michigan’s mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula, Republican...
View ArticleIn reversal, some states make it harder for people with felony convictions to...
Voters in Minneapolis, Minn., line up to vote during the 2018 midterm elections. Minnesota is one of two states this year that expanded the right to vote to people with felony convictions upon release...
View ArticleCities have ways to curb gun violence; feds are giving them more money
Police in Minneapolis unravel crime scene tape in 2020, a year marked by a stark rise in homicides. Community violence intervention programs offer a data-backed alternative to policing (Brandon...
View ArticleDrought hits the Midwest, threatening crops and the world’s food supply
Corn grows at a farm in Belvidere, Ill. Many farmers throughout the Midwest are dealing with the fallout of a drought that has harmed corn and soybean growth. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)City leaders in...
View ArticleRepublican states arm teachers, fortify buildings in another year of school...
Rows of flowers and candles in front of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, following the shooting on Oct. 24, 2022 that left two dead and several others wounded (Rebecca...
View ArticleWhy Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls
the Electronic Registration Information Center, commonly called ERIC, compares voter registration data from participating states with federal death and postal records to help states rid voter rolls of...
View ArticleElection monitors nervously practice for the ‘big dance in November’
Lamont Hart, a voter protection volunteer for the New Georgia Project, waits to speak with voters outside the Cobb County Senior Wellness Center in Marietta, Ga. He was one of many election monitors...
View ArticleCash-strapped election offices have fewer resources after bans on private grants
(Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) This month, Wisconsin joined 27 other states that have banned or restricted local governments’ use of private donations to run cash-strapped election offices, buy voting...
View ArticleFearing political violence, more states ban firearms at polling places
Over the past several years, national voting rights and gun violence prevention advocates have been sounding the alarm over increased threats around elections, pointing to ballooning disinformation,...
View Article