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Voting is a right; This shouldn’t be a controversial statement but it is. The struggle to ensure that every adult United States citizen has the right to vote has been going on since the founding of our country. Right now, our right to vote is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic and by apathy in some state legislatures. I am an intern for an organization called "The People.” We are proudly nonpartisan with members from all walks of life and different backgrounds. To quote our website, "The Peop

This article first appeared on The Fulcrum. DeVore, a Republican state legislator in California from 2004 through 2010, is vice president for national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank. With the coronavirus still infecting and killing people, particularly the old and infirm, there have been increasing calls to move America to an all-mail-in ballot for this November's election. This campaign is being advanced through legislation — the economi

This article was first published on The Fulcrum The GOP has sued to prevent the effort to conduct the November election almost entirely by mail in the nation's most populous state as a way to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The lawsuit, filed Sunday in federal court, says Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority this month by telling county election officials to send all 20.7 million registered Californians a ballot this fall. His order would potentially double the number of A

Many are aware by now that US Rep. Justin Amash has decided not to run for president -- citing the cumbersome realities the current political system presents to candidates outside the two major parties. “After much reflection, I’ve concluded that circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate,” said Amash. However, what got less attention in the mainstream conversation is what Amash said after this. The r

New York state cannot cancel the Democratic presidential primary, according to a ruling by a federal judge on Tuesday after top Democratic leaders tried to remove presidential candidates from the June primary ballot. The state’s Democratic leadership reportedly used concerns over Coronavirus as the reason for dropping the presidential contest, yet still planned to move forward with down-ballot races. This prompted an outcry, claiming Gov. Andrew Cuomo was just trying to help presumptive Democra

It came as no surprise that not long after US Rep. Justin Amash announced his Libertarian bid for president, both major parties took aim at him. Amash points out that there are “[millions] of Americans who aren't represented by either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, who aren't represented by the Republicans or the Democrats.” However, President Trump mocked Amash, saying he likes him “even more than Jill Stein.” Meanwhile former Democratic US Sen. Claire McCaskill ridiculed his campaign, sayin

The one silver lining pro-voter reformers see in the midst of these unprecedented and troubling times is that voters are now even more aware of the weaknesses in the US political and electoral process, and they want change. Most states with in-person voting scheduled in April were forced to postpone their primaries or elections until the early summer. Meanwhile, the one state that didn’t cancel its in-person voting, Wisconsin, has now reported at least 19 new coronavirus cases as a result. W

Attacks have been made from both the right and the left about the viability of vote at home systems and their potential to advantage one party over the other. In the midst of a global pandemic that continues to threaten our democratic processes, there is an immediate need to assuage these concerns. A timely study from Stanford University’s Democracy and Polarization Lab demonstrates vote-by-mail has a neutral partisan impact when it comes to turnout and vote share. The report is the most up-to-

Originally published on The Fulcrum. Enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 remains a celebrated landmark in American history. It's time to celebrate the law's potential anew by making some big changes in how state legislatures are elected. My home state of Virginia illustrates the merits of doing so. First, a quick refresher course: The law enacted 55 years ago put an end to literacy tests, poll taxes and a host of other discriminatory practices that had kept minority voters from gaining

‘Anger.’ ‘Frustration.’ ‘Controversy.’ ‘Chaos.’ Those were among the words used to describe Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary as voters were given a choice: Risk their health to vote in-person or have no voice in the 2020 primaries. Approximately 2,500 National Guardsmen were called in to man the polls Tuesday as voters lined up, most wearing face masks as they tried their best to practice social distancing while they waited to cast a ballot. https://twitter.com/OmarJimenez/status/12475002029210787