Latest Voting rights News

President Donald Trump arrives to give the commencement address at the

Trump campaign, RNC to spend $10M on voting lawsuits

Feb. 20, 2020 4:03 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee announced Thursday that they will spend more than $10 million during the 2020 election cycle to battle Democrats on voting-related lawsuits and to bolster their Election Day operations. The...

FILE- In this Jan. 8, 2019 file photo, former felon Desmond Meade and president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, left, fills out a voter registration form as his wife Sheena looks on at the Supervisor of Elections office in Orlando, Fla. On Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Tallahassee federal judge's decision that the law implementing Amendment 4 amounted to an unfair poll tax. Amendment 4 was passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 to allow as many as 1.6 million ex-felons to regain their right to vote. A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state will immediately ask the entire 11th Circuit to reconsider the ruling. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

Court: Florida can't bar felons from vote over fines, fees

Feb. 19, 2020 4:24 PM EST

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida cannot, for now, bar felons who served their time from registering to vote simply because they have failed to pay all fines and fees stemming from their cases, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a...

FILE - In this July 30, 2019, file photo, from left, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., greet each other before the first of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Democratic presidential hopefuls are offering different approaches to the central challenge of how to talk about the polarizing debate over abortion. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

Democrats diverge on outreach to anti-abortion swing voters

Feb. 18, 2020 3:55 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — In a party that’s shifted leftward on abortion rights, Democratic presidential hopefuls are offering different approaches to a central challenge: how to talk to voters without a clear home in the polarizing debate over the government’s role in the decision to end a pregnancy....

In this Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, photo, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab answers questions during an Associated Press interview in his office in Topeka, Kan. Schwab is facing criticism from some legislators for saying his office needs another year to prepare for allowing counties to permit voters to go to any polling place they choose on Election Day. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Democrats sue over Kansas delay in start of 'vote anywhere'

Feb. 14, 2020 11:22 PM EST

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas and national Democratic Party groups on Friday sued the Republican official who oversees the state's elections, accusing him of violating voters' rights by delaying the implementation of a law designed to make voting on Election Day more convenient. The lawsuit was filed in...

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab speaks to legislators from south-central Kansas about implementing a 2019 law that permits counties to allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The Republican secretary of state says his office needs another year to draft the regulations to ensure that electronic voter registration records remain secure and county computer systems can handle and update all records at once. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas' new elections chief sparks own voting-rights dispute

Feb. 12, 2020 6:08 PM EST

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' top election official says the state needs another year to prepare before it can give voters a choice of polling places on Election Day, even though it has been nearly 10 months since the Legislature enacted a law aimed at making voting more convenient and boosting turnout. Even...

In this Feb. 6, 2020, photo, Peruvian Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick, poses for a portrait at San Martin de Porres neighborhood in Lima, Peru. The day Fitzpatrick applied for an Illinois driver's license upended her life. When a clerk offered to register her to vote, the Peruvian citizen mistakenly accepted, leading to long legal battles and eventually deportation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Voter registration error risks deportation for immigrants

Feb. 10, 2020 2:34 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — The day Margarita Del Pilar Fitzpatrick applied for an Illinois driver's license upended her life. When a clerk offered to register her to vote in 2005, the Peruvian citizen mistakenly accepted, leading to long legal battles and eventually deportation. A decade and a half later, she...

FILE - This Oct. 9, 2015 file photo shows Marin Alsop conducting a concert in Cathedral Square in Havana, Cuba. Alsop has been hired as the first chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The 63-year-old was given a two-year appointment. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan, File)

Marin Alsop become's Ravinia's 1st chief conductor

Feb. 5, 2020 2:50 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — Marin Alsop has been hired as the first chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The 63-year-old was given a two-year appointment, the festival said Wednesday. She will conduct two weeks annually starting this year and will include programs...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer delivers her State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

The Latest: Michigan Gov. Whitmer delivers response to Trump

Feb. 4, 2020 11:50 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest on the president's State of the Union speech (all times local): 11:25 p.m. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has used Democrats' response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to swivel from impeachment to working-class voters' worries, saying her party is...

Illinois mistakenly cancels ex-inmates' voter registrations

Feb. 3, 2020 5:59 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — The voter registrations of nearly 800 former Illinois inmates may have been mistakenly canceled because of a “data-matching error” between state agencies, the State Board of Elections disclosed Monday. In Illinois, the voting rights of inmates convicted of crimes are suspended...

Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, changes to sisterhood

Jan. 30, 2020 5:43 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia, otherwise known as the City of Brotherly Love, changed its nickname Thursday in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. The city's honorary nickname will be the City of Sisterly Love until the end of 2020. Councilwoman Katherine Gilmore-Richardson introduced...

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