The 2020 presidential election will be the first in nearly 40 years conducted without protections from a court order that forbid the GOP from using voter intimidation at the polls.
The Voting Rights Act was intended to prevent voter suppression in states with histories of discrimination. But states are finding other ways to make it difficult for people of colour to vote.
International observers from Canada, India and Jamaica tour the Utah County election facilities on Nov. 6, 2018 in Provo, Utah.
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Many US states forbid foreign observers to monitor their elections, but as the 2020 presidential election nears, a poll finds broad public support for international election observers.
Democrats filed suit against Republicans in 1981 for allegedly sending armed patrols to polling stations during the New Jersey gubernatorial race.
Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images
Republicans are free again to recruit poll watchers – four decades after ‘ballot security’ operations helped steer New Jersey’s 1981 gubernatorial race toward their candidate.
Georgia voters brought folding chairs, books, laptop computers and plenty of patience to the polls on June.
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Voters across the nation should prepare for similar circumstances in their communities – but there is still time for them to demand better from their officials.
Californians wait in line to vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu
The modern poll tax isn’t paid in money, but in time – how long it takes a person to get to a polling place, and, once there, how long it takes for them to actually cast their ballot.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, right, signed the measure state lawmakers approved.
AP Photo/Steve Cannon
This state law is leaving up to a million people unable to participate in elections who might have gotten relief through an amendment voters approved. Critics call it a modern-day poll tax.
Florida enfranchisement leader Desmond Meade registered to vote in January 2019.
AP Photo/John Raoux
States may have passed these laws with the aim of reducing turnout. But new evidence suggests that they have a minimal or nonexistent effect.
Stacey Abrams is the first African-American woman to deliver a State of the Union response in the 53-year history of this tradition.
Pool video image via AP
The South is changing, with more Asian and Latino immigrants moving in and diversifying a region that was once black and white. Stacey Abrams knows that Democrats can win these rural voters.
In this December 2017 photo, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, while Paul Ryan looks on, during a ceremony at the White House after the final passage of tax overhaul legislation.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Donald Trump may have executed a hostile takeover of the Republican party, but the GOP has been laying the groundwork for decades.
Democrat Beto O'Rourke won 63 percent of Latino voters in Texas, exit polls show, and Latinos seem to have voted in record numbers. But it wasn’t enough to win.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Record high Latino participation shows this growing voter segment will turn out for parties and politicians who tackle issues they care about. That’s a big lesson for 2020 – and not just for Dems.
Much is hanging on the outcome of the US mid-term elections - and much of it is unpredictable.
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