voter turnout

December 4, 2015 - This week the N.C. NAACP, voting rights advocates and faith leaders kicked off an 80-day mass voter engagement campaign in the run-up to the March primary — a nonpartisan effort to resist recent efforts by state leaders to make voting harder.

November 13, 2015 - Fast-food and other low-wage workers held hundreds of protests across the country on Tuesday, many in Southern cities. After racking up wins at the state and local levels, organizers are now taking their case for a higher minimum wage and union rights to the national stage in the run-up to next year's elections.

September 25, 2015 - The recent case of Ahmed Mohamed, a Sudanese-American student in Irving, Texas who was detained for bringing a homemade clock to school, has shed light on tension between the Dallas suburb's racially diverse population and its nearly entirely white local leadership — a dynamic that has persisted despite efforts to ensure local leadership reflects the broader community.

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.

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?

November 14, 2014 - President Obama reportedly plans to issue an executive order before year's end dramatically overhauling U.S. immigration policy, sparing as many as 5 million people from the threat of deportation. What will the political consequences be?

November 6, 2014 - Despite reports of strong early voting numbers in several Southern battleground states, preliminary data indicate that overall voter turnout this fall didn't increase significantly compared to past midterm elections.