Politics
November 21, 2019 -
The plaintiffs in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit want a North Carolina court to block judicial elections in districts that were drawn last year by the state legislature. In the racially diverse city of Charlotte, three of the eight districts are more than 70 percent white.
November 20, 2019 -
In the U.S. census count set for next year, many states in the South will continue to count prisoners as residents of the district where the prison is located rather than in their home communities — a practice that distorts representative democracy. But efforts are underway in some states to change how prisoners are counted.
November 15, 2019 -
Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students left the classroom this week to protest the state Board of Education's refusal to return governance of the district from the state to a locally-elected school board. Critics of the state board say it's motivated by money, not students.
November 8, 2019 -
Facing criticism that's hurting stock prices, private prison companies have banded together to create a new industry advocacy group called the Day 1 Alliance. Its spokesperson previously led a Virginia super PAC that targeted career EPA employees who criticized President Trump and NOAA employees who supported progressive Democrats.
November 8, 2019 -
Mildred Russell, an 89-year-old African-American woman, wasn't allowed to vote in a special election held earlier this year in Webster County, Georgia. It ended in a tie that her vote would have broken — so officials had to do the election over again this week.
November 7, 2019 -
As the 2020 election approaches, Southern states are pursuing purges of voting rolls that can disrupt the electoral process — but voting rights advocates are pushing back.
November 6, 2019 -
In Texas, which has long debated changes to its system of partisan judicial elections, Republican leaders began pushing an appointment system just a few months after last year's Democratic sweep in Houston's judicial elections. One proposed bill would put an end to elected judges in urban counties.
