Author

Zachary Roth

Zachary Roth

Zachary Roth is the National Democracy Reporter for States Newsroom.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has been a leader in putting the Biden administration on the defensive over its efforts to combat online disinformation. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies

By: - November 22, 2023

Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that the Biden administration had violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies to remove content, related both to elections and the COVID-19 vaccine, that […]

n September, the GOP-controlled Wisconsin state senate voted to oust Meagan Wolfe as the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Wolfe was the target of false conspiracy theories about illegal voting during the 2020 election, but she has refused to step down. (Henry Redman/Wisconsin Examiner)

Anti-democratic moves by state lawmakers raise fears for 2024 election

By: - September 26, 2023

In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are threatening to impeach both the state’s election administrator, who is highly regarded nationally, and a state Supreme Court justice despite a ruling by the state’s judicial commission that the justice had done nothing wrong — effectively nullifying a recent statewide election she won, Democrats say. In North Carolina, a bill […]

The Declaration of Independence. (Photo: Getty Images)

Americans are worried about democracy. You wouldn’t know it from the GOP debate.

By: - August 31, 2023

There’s a growing feeling, among both experts and ordinary Americans, that our democracy isn’t functioning well — and even that it’s under threat. “American democracy is cracking,” the Washington Post reported August 18. “I’m terrified,” one democracy expert told the paper. “I think we are in bad shape, and I don’t know a way out.” […]

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats is pressing the Biden administration to make it easier for the millions of Americans who sign up each year for health insurance through a federal website to register to vote. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Federal health insurance website lags in voter registration assistance, Democrats charge

By: - July 3, 2023

A group of U.S. Senate Democrats is pressing the Biden administration to make it easier for the millions of Americans who sign up each year for health insurance through a federal website to register to vote. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote in a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human […]

Voters at Nashville's Downtown Library.(Photo: Ray DiPietro)

Red and blue state divide grows even wider in 2023’s top voting and election laws 

By: - June 27, 2023

Next year’s elections are still 16 months away. But for voters, perhaps the most important developments took place during the first half of this year — when states drafted and passed the legislation that will shape how those contests are run. “The rules that will govern the 2024 election are being written today,” said Megan […]

Voters entering a poll in Nashville, Tenn. om Nov. 8, 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo)

States with low election turnout did little in 2023 to expand voting access

By: - June 19, 2023

This year’s state legislative sessions are almost all wrapped up. And on voting and elections policy, the headlines have largely focused on a new wave of restrictive voting laws passed in big Republican-led states like Florida, Texas, and Ohio, as well as expansive laws approved in Democratic-led states like Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. But […]

U.S. Supreme Court (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Ruling in Alabama case could boost suits increasing Black voters’ power in other states

By: - June 12, 2023

In one sense, the Supreme Court’s surprise ruling striking down Alabama’s 2022 congressional maps maintains the legal status quo. By 5-4, the justices rejected the state’s attempt to restrict the ability of the Voting Rights Act to block gerrymanders that suppress the power of minority voters. But that dramatically understates the impact of the case, […]

Sign outside Ann Arbor polling place, Nov. 8, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins

A GOP claim that Michigan purposely tried to encourage voter fraud doesn’t fit with facts

By: - May 7, 2023

Republicans at a recent congressional hearing accused Michigan’s chief election official of deliberately leaving tens of thousands of dead voters on the rolls in order to encourage illegal voting. Even at a time of intense partisan conflict over election policies, it was a strikingly direct charge against a sitting official — and one made not […]

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen during inaugural ceremonies, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023 in Montgomery, Ala. (Photo/Stew Milne)

Red-state elections officials balk at voter registration outreach

By: - April 3, 2023

A day after taking office in January, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen withdrew his state from the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate data-sharing compact aimed at helping states keep clean voter rolls.  Asked about the move a few days later by a conservative radio host, Allen, a Republican, at first talked about privacy […]