Last month, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The cornerstone provision is known as Section 5, which requires some states and localities to get federal clearance before making any changes to their voting laws. What […]

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In a 1988 New Yorker article, Ronnie Dugger asked: “[C]ould electronic illusionists steal the Presidency by fixing the vote-counting apparatus in just four or five major metropolitan areas?” Less than two months before the 2012 election, the situation Dugger described seemed to be unfolding in Ohio, where software patches were installed on Election Systems & Software […]

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For 30 years, Karl Rove has won elections by a formula that depended on deceit and defamation. A whispering campaign that described Texas Governor Ann Richards as a closet lesbian; an announcement that two aides working for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower would be indicted (before Justice Department lawyers made any announcement about indictments); rumors […]

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Democrats picked up four seats in Oregon’s House, breaking a 30–30 deadlock (and making Tina Kotek the first openly lesbian speaker in any legislature in the U.S.). A Democratic governor and Democratic Legislature now confront $16 billion in unfunded liabilities in a Public Employee Retirement System that has lost 27 percent of its value since […]

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John Kitzhaber was first elected governor in 1994, the year of the “Gingrich Revolution.” For the first time in 50 years, Republicans controlled both houses of the Oregon Legislature—by such large margins that Democrats were not needed for quorums. Democratic Governor Kitzhaber, M.D., set a record. In two terms in office he vetoed 203 bills, […]

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