A whirl of endless disinformation…60% of Republicans variously committed to insurrection supporters or the Big Lie…endless filter bubbles…”pink slime” in place of local journalism… The wonders do not cease. It didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t caused by the neoliberal conviction that we didn’t need no steenking Fairness Doctrine. It took much more to get …
Frantic though improbable efforts continue to seek to decertify the election of 2020. The less said about this counter-factual dementia the better. But serious issues are embodied in legislation in several states that would permit partisan legislatures to disallow the expressed will of the people. We seem headed into a series of truly fascinating election …
Despite oft-spoken fears, and alongside a plethora of legal cases, some still making their way through the courts, it appears that redistricting this year will produce — wait for it — a fair distribution of districts. There will be a nearly equal number of Republican-leaning and Democrat-leaning congressional districts, despite all the sturm and drang, …
Buy On the Rumor An old expression on Wall Street goes this way: “Buy on the rumor. Sell on the news.” It was meant to underline the temporal disparity between the events. Meaning – get in early. This adage has acquired new meaning in our polarized and deranged politico-cultural environment. We not only buy, we …
Election officials are not secretarial staffs, they are professionals. We call them “clerks” or “administrators” but the truth is they are profoundly well trained and deeply sophisticated pros who conduct hundreds — even thousands — of tasks in preparing for, conducting, and validating elections. Brenda Cabrera, Fairfax Virginia’s Director of Elections, renders an impressive list …
2021 was a bad year for voting rights. Now state legislatures have returned for their sessions. What will 2022 bring? Early returns are not encouraging.Today, the Brennan Center published our Voting Laws Roundup, which catalogs legislative assaults on voting rights around the country. As of January 14, legislators in 27 states have introduced, pre-filed, or …
The crisis in local journalism — its disappearance — isn’t something brand new; it’s been brewing for a couple of decades, but now it’s in full flood. “News deserts” are being filled by so-called “pink slime” sites. Disinformation is in ascent. Standards of truth and reliable information have been assaulted. How can we rebuild journalism …
As Build Back Better recedes in immediacy, liberating (at last) time and space to focus on voting rights, the republic faces ongoing tribulation. 400 laws have been submitted to state legislatures to alter terms for voting access, redistricting is in its final stages following the Covid-skewed census of 2020. And now Congress faces a final …
While semi-official mass media have declared voting rights legislation dead, gigantic local efforts remain underway to press a handful of recalcitrant Democratic Senators to revisit the scope of the filibuster where civil rights and voting rights legislation is concerned, and S1’s demise may well have been prematurely pronounced. The July 4 recess has turned into …
Arizona’s memorable color-coded-tee-shirt ballot “audit” recedes in the mirror as the Department of Justice has begun to take cognizance of the mischief such uncontrolled freelancing might do to trust in elections. That is the gigantic variable that is starting to surface, as 2020 and all its mischief also recedes into history. Sure, a majority of …
