democracy

August 12, 2019 - A group of activists is working to amend the Florida constitution to ban rifles and shotguns that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. But it's gathered only a fraction of the signatures required to get the ban on the ballot, and it's facing burdensome new rules for citizen amendments.

July 18, 2019 - A judge recently ruled that the North Carolina legislature lost its power to amend the state constitution after federal courts ruled that it was unconstitutionally gerrymandered by race. Now new evidence suggests that lawmakers misled judges to buy time to pass the amendments.

October 4, 2017 - Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who has a history of making unfounded charges against voting rights activists, recently called on the state to prosecute 14 paid voter registration canvassers for alleged fraud. Is it yet another case of wrongful targeting of law-abiding citizens?

December 22, 2016 - The recent move by North Carolina's GOP-controlled legislature to strip powers from Democratic Gov.-elect Roy Cooper is an example of basic democratic norms being undermined in a radical way, authoritarianism expert Yascha Mounk of Harvard University told an NPR talk show this week.

November 19, 2015 - Join us on Friday, Nov. 20 in Durham, North Carolina for an event with journalist Ari Berman, author of a widely-acclaimed book looking at the 50-year struggle to expand and defend the right to vote.

July 17, 2015 - A new report examines the well-being of state democracies and finds that seven of the nation's 10 least healthy are in the South. We take a look at barriers to voting across the region.

July 25, 2012 - State Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford) says he called for a vote to override Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of a bill to move forward with fracking after seeing a Democratic colleague opposed to the override leave the floor for a moment -- even though that lawmaker's district has a considerable stake in the matter.