Month: October 2022

NC Policy Watch: “U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a case that challenges an Alabama redistricting map and could potentially eliminate remaining federal safeguards against racial gerrymandering. Voting rights advocates fear that the high court’s conservative majority will further weaken the Voting Rights Act, with implications for voters in states across the…

AR Times: “For the first time in Arkansas history, a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas will appear on the ballot in November.  Voters have the chance to make Arkansas the 20th state in the country and second in the South (after Virginia) to legalize marijuana for adults.  … Under the new amendment,…

Political Wire: “Christian Walker, son of Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker (R), tweets: I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us. You’re not a “family man” when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and…

Political Wire: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused Democrats of murdering Republicans in “killings” that the lawmaker claims are underway. Said Greene: “I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead, and they have already started the killings.””

AL.com: “But the last few times Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl voted, he presented poll workers with an ID they’d never seen before. To someone who had never seen a state employee ID, it could be mistaken for one. But it wasn’t. It bore a state seal, a barcode and Wahl’s picture. The badge…

AL Political Reporter: “Kenneth Traywick, also known as Swift Justice, an incarcerated activist and co-founder of the justice non-profit Unheard Voices OTCJ, said in an interview with APR on Sunday that the demands brought forwarded by incarcerated individuals are not unreasonable, as Ivey suggested, and would benefit public safety if implemented—using the repeal of the Habitual Offender Act…

WaPo: “From 2010 to 2020, census records show, the top two fastest-growing metro areas in the United States were The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Over that same period, the rate of population growth in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee exceeded the national average while other states…

NC Policy Watch: “The statements were in response to to a Wednesday report by Wilmington’s WECT-TV that detailed several disturbing developments in what has been an ongoing saga involving Greene. The report explains that Greene uttered multiple racist and hate-filled statements in the aftermath of a closely contested 2018 election in which his residency in the county…

NC Policy Watch: “The free event, Deeper into Democracy: Voting & Elections in NC Today, will be held at the Greensboro History Museum Sunday, October 2 at 3 p.m. Cooper, a Political Science professor and director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University, is editor and co-author of The New Politics of North Carolina and The Resilience of Southern…

AR Times: “Judge Kristine Baker has permanently enjoined a 2019 law that made it harder for third parties to qualify for the general election ballot. The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had already upheld a preliminary injunction in the case, but Secretary of State John Thurston continued to argue for the statute. The judge rejected…