Jen reports on threats to democracy in states across the country. She previously covered elections and local government at the Houston Chronicle and at Houston’s NPR station. She loves voting early on Halloween.
A federal court ruled against a Republican challenge to California’s redistricting plan, rejecting the GOP claim that the state had engaged in illegal racial gerrymandering when drawing up its new congressional map.
As Black students silently protested, Republican state officials denied their request to provide a primary election early voting location at North Carolina A&T State University, the largest of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities.
An attorney representing Missouri’s top election official admitted in court Friday that her client had authored ballot language that could “prejudice” voters about a referendum to block the GOP’s new gerrymandered congressional map.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) threatened Houston with a state takeover of its elections on Thursday — an escalation of long-simmering GOP threats to gain control of voting in the fourth-largest city in the United States.
State officials have sorted through more than 300,000 signatures gathered to block Republicans’ new Missouri congressional map, as the fate of the GOP gerrymander remains in legal limbo. The officials rejected one-third of signatures as invalid based on the date they were collected – a decision that referendum organizers are challenging in court.
With the Florida legislature set to convene next week, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Wednesday that he will call a special session on redistricting in April, adding the Sunshine State to the list of places where Republicans aim to give themselves an electoral advantage in the 2026 midterm elections.
President Donald Trump is facing sharp criticism for bypassing Congress and conducting an overnight military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian leader of Venezuela, and bring him to the United States to stand trial.
Much like replacing a smoke detector or coming down with the flu, it’s best if we only have to deal with redistricting once per decade. And yet, here we are, mid-decade, wading through nonstop redistricting news because 77 million people voted for a convicted felon who will happily demolish democracy like it’s the East Wing of the White House if it helps him hold on to power in the 2026 midterm elections.
Missourians filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a court to stop the state from using its new congressional map until voters have the chance to approve or reject the measure in a referendum.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a potentially monumental case next year about whether a mail ballot must be received by Election Day to count. Though a ruling is still months away, the case has already led at least one state to scrap its grace period thanks to the uncertainty of how the court will rule.
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