🖤 Donations of all sizes power our public service journalism Give Now

Voting machines are totally hackable. But who's going to pay to fix them?

Oct 23, 2018
An argument for why voting systems should be regulated — and funded — like public utilities.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Voting machines are totally hackable. But who's going to pay to fix them?

Oct 23, 2018
An argument for why voting systems should be regulated — and funded — like public utilities.
Voters cast their ballots at voting machines in Las Vegas in 2016.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

There is more proof some very big money is behind the midterm elections

Oct 15, 2018
More women are contributing money, and more of that money is backing female candidates.
Shaun Heasley/Getty Images

Who pays when presidents hit the campaign trail?

Oct 15, 2018
When President Trump, like his predecessors, stumps for local politicians, local taxpayers foot the bill.
President Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally at the Kansas Expocentre on Oct. 6 in Topeka.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Voters in a California city weigh taxing vacant properties to help ease homelessness

Oct 11, 2018
If the Oakland measure is approved, it would be the state's first such tax.
Homeless advocate Candice Elder checks in with Dorothy Smith at an encampment in Oakland in August. Smith, who raised her children in the city, said her disability benefits are not enough to afford housing.
Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED

Campaigns target young voters, but will they show up on Election Day?

Oct 10, 2018
This campaign season, millions of dollars are being spent to convince young voters to register and vote in the midterm elections.
A pollster loads paper into a primary registration machine at the Travis County Courthouse in 2008 in Austin, Texas.
Ben Sklar/Getty Images

S&P 500 companies make fewer election-related donations, survey shows

Oct 4, 2018
The companies that still donate are also becoming more transparent.
Joe Raedle/Newsmakers

For public good, not for profit.

Hurricane and political seasons collide on The Weather Channel

Sep 14, 2018
Viewers of The Weather Channel may have noticed a lot of campaign ads this week as the midterm elections approach and more people tuned in to track Hurricane Florence. According to NCC Media, the number of political advertisers on the channel grew from 59 last week to 83 this week. “It’s a smart media strategy,” […]
A tattered U.S. flag flies as the outer bands of Hurricane Florence make landfall Friday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
ALEX EDELMAN/AFP/Getty Images

How socialism became the talk of the midterms

Sep 11, 2018
The term has re-entered politics in America, but it means different things to different people.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks to supporters after winning the Vermont primary on Super Tuesday on March 1, 2016, in Essex Junction, Vermont.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

State-level redistricting fights involve plenty of money moves

Sep 3, 2018
The Labor Day weekend signals the last campaigning and fundraising push before the midterm elections.
Activists march to Senate Hart Office Building June 25, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Common Cause, American Promise, Take Back Our Republic and Represent Us and Fix It America co-hosted an event and visits to congressional members from New Mexico to urge the Congress to support 'the Fix It America Constitutional Amendment to reign in the influence of big money in politics and curb the abuses of gerrymandering in the redistricting process.'
Alex Wong/Getty Images