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Some Republican-led states refuse to let Justice Department monitors into polling places

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Republican-led states say they will block the Justice Department’s election monitors from going inside polling places on Election Day, pushing back on federal authorities’ decades-long practice of watching for violations of federal voting laws. Officials in Florida and Texas have said they won’t allow federal election monitors into polling sites on Tuesday. And on Monday, Missouri filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to block federal officials from observing inside polling places. Texas followed with a similar lawsuit seeking to permanently bar […]

November 5, 2024

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In the campaign’s final weeks, Harris is keeping a focus on ‘blue wall’ states

MILWAUKEE (AP) — With three weeks left in the presidential campaign, Democrat Kamala Harris is spending most of her days trying to shore up support in the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as she tries to avoid a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s collapse there eight years ago. The vice president campaigned at a hockey rink on Monday in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she denounced Republican candidate Donald Trump as “unhinged.” She visited an art gallery in Detroit with actors Don Cheadle, Delroy Lindo, and […]

October 17, 2024

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Harris planning to tour battleground states next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to launch a battleground tour next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate, with stops in seven swing states stretching from Pennsylvania to Nevada, her campaign said Tuesday. The planned tour is the latest sign of the whirlwind pace at which Harris has gone from President Joe Biden’s supportive running mate to likely Democratic nominee ready to identify her No. 2 and take on Republican Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. […]

August 1, 2024

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Voter outreach groups targeted by new laws in several GOP-led states are struggling to do their work

WASHINGTON (AP) — During the presidential election four years ago, the Equal Ground Education Fund hired over 100 people to go door-to-door and attend festivals, college homecomings and other events to help register voters across Florida. Their efforts for this year’s elections look much different. A state law passed last year forced them to stop in-person voter registration, cut staff and led to a significant drop in funding. Organizers aren’t sure how robust their operations will be in the fall. […]

May 28, 2024

News

Amid marijuana reclassification, could more states legalize it?

As the U.S. government moves toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, there may be little immediate impact in the dozen states that have not already legalized cannabis for widespread medical or recreational use by adults. But advocates for marijuana legalization hope a federal regulatory shift could eventually change the minds — and votes — of some state policymakers who have been reluctant to embrace weed. “It is very common for a state legislator to tell me, ‘Well, I might be […]

May 4, 2024

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States move to shore up voting rights protections after courts erode federal safeguards

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An appeals court ruling that weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act is spurring lawmakers in several states to enact state-level protections to plug gaps that the ruling opened in the landmark federal law aimed at prohibiting racial discrimination in voting. Democratic-led states have been taking matters into their own hands because national legislation to expand voting rights remains stalled in a divided Congress. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in many states have tried to erode safeguards in the name of protecting […]

April 1, 2024

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14 GOP-led states have rejected funds to feed kids in the summer

Lower-income families with school-age kids can get help from the federal government paying for groceries this summer, unless they live in one of the 14 states that have said no to joining the program this year. The reasons for the rejections, all from states with Republican governors, include philosophical objections to welfare programs, technical challenges due to aging computer systems and satisfaction with other summer nutrition programs reaching far fewer children. The impact falls on people like Otibehia Allen, a […]

February 17, 2024

News

Watch: Can states bar Trump from 2024 presidential ballot?

On this week’s edition of “The Hill with April Ryan,” theGrio’s Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent, April D. Ryan, looks at the legal debate before the Supreme Court on whether former President Donald Trump should be barred from the 2024 presidential ballot under the 14th Amendment. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a former member of Congress, tells theGrio that kicking Trump off the ballot is the wrong thing to do. She argued that Democrats should instead beat him […]

February 9, 2024

News

What Black voters should know about redistricting cases in these states

Several court battles in states throughout the South accused of racial gerrymandering will determine the voting power of Black Americans in the 2024 election and future control of Congress. The outcomes of these redistricting cases, one of which is currently being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court, will test the durability of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and constitutional rights for Black Americans. They will be crucial determinants as to whether Democrats or Republicans will hold the majority in […]

February 7, 2024