Mother Jones
Ari Berman is a senior reporter for Mother Jones and the author of Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics and Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America.
Berman is a former political correspondent for The Nation and a former investigative journalism fellow at The Nation Institute.
What voter suppression looks like this election cycle We talk about strict voter ID laws in Texas, Georgia, North Dakota and Kansas -- and how they affect close races. We also look at why Florida may be the key to reversing that trend.
Strict voter ID laws could tilt Alabama senate race in Roy Moore's favor Alabama voters will choose between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones Tuesday. Jones needs black voters, some of whom won’t be able to vote because of the state’s strict voter ID laws.
US elections: Repaired… or fixed? In the year 2000, legal dispute over the failure of Florida's voting machinery led to the selection of President George W. Bush by the US Supreme Court. Other results were a crisis of confidence in America's electoral process — which produced many changes.
US elections and 'voter fraud' President Trump claims that three million people voted illegally last year, and he's established a Commission on Election Integrity . Vice President Mike Pence is the Chair, but the major work is being done by Vice Chair Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State — and candidate for Governor next year.
Federal court rules Texas redistricting discriminatory Last Friday, a federal court issued a bombshell decision in Texas: three Congressional districts were intentionally drawn to discriminate against black and Latinos and to gain voting advantages for Republicans.
A noble pursuit or just a distraction? Donald Trump lost the popular vote, but prevailed in the Electoral College. Now his claim of a "rigged" election has come back to haunt him. Green Party candidate Jill Stein is paying for recounts in Wisconsin and possibly two other states where he won by very small margins.
Voting rights advocates are fighting GOP voting laws and winning Six major court rulings against voter restriction laws were issued in the last two weeks, bringing voting rights front and center just months before the presidential election.
Chaos and Disenfranchisement at the Polls In yesterday's primaries, party frontrunners won. Many voters lost. A record number of New Yorkers complained about delays and glitches, not to mention anger at closed primary rules. Four times as many calls about voting problems poured into the national voter hotline than did in 2012.
Are US Elections Fair, Open and Accessible? Some Arizona voters waited up to five hours yesterday to cast ballots in their state’s primary. Long wait times have been reported in other primaries and caucuses too. There have been reports of rundown voting machines, confusion over voter registries, and let us never forget the hanging chad debacle in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.
The Voting Rights Act 50 Years Later: Race and the Ballot Box The 1965 Voting Rights Act paved the way for black voters in states where they'd been denied the franchise, despite the Bill of Rights and the Civil War. In 2013, the US Supreme Court ruled that enforcement wasn't needed any more.
The Voting Rights Act at 50 Fifty years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Since then, there’s been a near-constant battle over it. Just yesterday, an appeals court found that a strict Texas voter ID law violated the Act. It required a government-issued photo ID in order to vote, which many minorities don’t have.
Will Voters Be Kept from the Polls…Again? Last year, the US Supreme Court ruled that key parts of the Voting Rights Act, signed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965, had outlived their usefulness. By a five to four majority, the court lifted burdens imposed on states with histories of discrimination in voting.
Has the South Outgrown the Voting Rights Act? After the re-election of America's first black president, Alabama and other states want the US Supreme Court to throw out a key section of the Voting Rights Act . It requires states and localities with histories of racial discrimination to check with the Justice Department when they change voting laws.
Is There a War on Voting Rights? Democrats and Republicans know that every vote counts, especially in a divided nation. All over the country, Republicans in state capitols are passing laws to limit what they call rampant voter fraud. Democrats say the GOP has declared war on the rights of voters who want to re-elect Barack Obama.
Voter ID and the 'Battle Before the Battle' Republicans insist that voter fraud is so common it could change the results of elections or at least diminish confidence in the integrity of the process. But Democrats say the GOP is pushing voter-identification laws to keep students, the elderly and especially African Americans away from the polls.
What are LA parents doing with their kids during the strike? During the teacher strike, a lot of students are not going to class. According to the district’s tally, about 163,000 turned up for school Tuesday, out of a total of about half a million. Some are spending their time on the picket line. Older students might go study at Starbucks or play hooky. But the parents of younger children in L.A.
Belly up to the Barr Bill Barr is set to reprise his role as Attorney General, but this time for the Trump administration. Why would he want the job now?
Best of KCRW Podcasts: Forces of Nature This is a special holiday episode highlighting the best KCRW podcasts of 2018. After a year of fires and mudslides, who doesn’t think about how to reckon with the forces of nature? In a story from the newest podcast in the KCRW fold, Nocturne , we learn how animals deal with the most destructive force of nature: humans. Then, KCRW’s podcast The Organist tries to convince us that plants have secret lives, and to embrace the overlap of science and art.
Trump‘s Wall and the Politics of ‘Us Versus Them’ Politically, Trump’s great wall may not be worth the government shutdown. But it appeals to his base, including evangelical Christians. As the country’s white, protestant majority gives way to diversity, some fear that the essence of America is changing. Opposition to immigration in Western Europe is no coincidence.
