voting rights

Pakistani women queue to cast their ballots last month at a polling station during local government elections in Lahore, one of the country's biggest cities. In other areas, local tradition can prevent women from voting.

World News

Will The First Pakistani Woman To Vote In Her Village Also Be The Last?

8:23am November 21, 2015

by Philip Reeves

A mother of two defied village tradition and cast her vote in local elections on Thursday. "It was necessary because it is a women's right," she says. But now she and her husband fear for their lives.

Avoiding A Lawsuit, Alabama Agrees To Comply With Voting Law

4:14pm November 13, 2015

by Debbie Elliott

The Justice Department found widespread noncompliance with a law requiring states to let people register to vote or update registration information when applying for or renewing a driver's license.

Politics & Government

As Voting Rights Trial Ends, Another GOP Challenge Looms

11:26am August 03, 2015

Both sides wrapped up their final arguments Friday in a federal voting trial in Winston-Salem after three weeks of testimony. It challenges sweeping changes to the state's voting law that critics say intentionally targets practices favored by minority and young voters.

Politics & Government

'Selma' March Draws Thousands To Winston-Salem

6:32am July 14, 2015

Crowds of people braved the hot summer sun in Winston-Salem to protest sweeping changes to the state's voting laws that includes a reduction in early hours.

People wait in line to vote at the Board of Elections early voting site on Oct. 18, 2012, in Wilson, N.C. The U.S. Justice Department and several groups are suing North Carolina over the sweeping election overhaul it passed two years ago.

N.C. Trial Outcome Could Sway National Voting Rights Measures

1:17pm July 13, 2015

by Michael Tomsic

The Justice Department is challenging North Carolina's 2013 elections law, a sweeping overhaul that could affect black voter turnout disproportionately.

Queue Listen Now

Supreme Court Declines To Hear Challenge To Strict Wisconsin Voter ID Law

3:52pm March 24, 2015

by Pam Fessler

Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, a handful of challenges to state voter ID requirements are making their way through the courts. Texas and North Carolina are among them.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown smiles after signing an automatic voter registration bill on Monday in Salem, Ore. Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state in the nation to hold all elections by mail ballot, it is taking another pioneering st

Would Automatic Voter Registration Increase Turnout?

6:03am March 18, 2015

by Domenico Montanaro

A new law in Oregon is designed to make voting easier. Advocates are looking to it to increase turnout, but that might not necessarily be the result.

Spider Martin's most well-known photograph, Two Minute Warning, shows marchers facing a line of state troopers in Selma moments before police beat the protestors on March 7, 1965. The day became known as Bloody Sunday.

National

Photographer Helped Expose Brutality Of Selma's 'Bloody Sunday'

10:40am March 06, 2015

by Andrew Yeager

Some of the most iconic images of marchers being attacked by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, were captured by a white photojournalist who stumbled onto the historic events.

Queue Listen Now

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom cover detail

Books
Arts

Illustrated Memoir Recalls Marching In Selma At Just 15

6:59pm January 17, 2015

by NPR Staff

Lynda Blackmon Lowery was still a child when she joined the legendary 1965 march. Now she's written a book for young readers about the experience, called Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom.

Queue Listen Now

Voters walk to an early voting site to cast their ballots on Aug. 11 in Miami. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Ohio upheld a decision extending early voting in that state. Meanwhile, as Election Day nears, courts are still considering cases about

As Election Nears, Voting Laws Still Unclear In Some States

11:12am September 26, 2014

by Pam Fessler

A federal appeals court in Ohio just upheld a decision extending early voting in that state — but several other big voting law cases are still undecided, just weeks before the midterm elections.

Queue Listen Now