Elections and Voting

March 6, 2015 - The 1965 Selma march being commemorated this weekend in Alabama helped speed passage of the Voting Rights Act -- but the landmark law is now in its most precarious position in a half-century.

February 10, 2015 - In a new report, "Tar Heel Power Brokers," Facing South/Institute for Southern Studies ranks the top 101 most influential special interests in North Carolina politics through a combination of lobbying power and political spending in N.C. state-level elections. These four interactive graphics tell the story of these power brokers' influence in state government.

January 23, 2015 - An Institute analysis of who turned out for the 2014 midterm election in North Carolina finds small but steady increases in engagement among voters of color. Could they make the difference in the state in 2016?

January 16, 2015 - With the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision lifting political spending restrictions coming up on Jan. 21, the Brennan Center for Justice released a report this week looking at outside spending and dark money in last year's U.S. Senate races -- and it paints a frightening for democracy.

January 16, 2015 - Next week the U.S. celebrates the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It also marks the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended campaign spending limits -- and the two occasions are more closely linked than many realize.

December 5, 2014 - Duke University researchers have published a study that uses math to show just how wildly North Carolina's congressional districts misrepresent the will of voters. The findings comes amid a growing push for nonpartisan redistricting reform to end gerrymandering.

November 25, 2014 - A report from the voting rights watchdog group Democracy North Carolina documents the disenfranchising effects of the state's restrictive new election law.