npr--2020-10-17--Analysis: Questionable 'N.Y. Post' Scoop Driven By Ex-Hannity Producer And Giuliani

It is a classic moment in the weeks before Election Day : a news outlet runs a front-page exclusive promising scandalous revelations about a big-ticket candidate .
This week , the New York Post published a story based on what it says are emails — `` smoking gun '' emails , it calls them — sent by a Ukrainian business executive to the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden .
The story fits snugly into a narrative from President Trump and his allies that Hunter Biden 's zealous pursuit of business ties abroad also compromised the former vice president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more by red flags than investigative rigor .
To start , the emails have not been verified as authentic .
They were said to have been extracted from a computer assumed — but not proven — to have belonged to the younger Biden .
They were said to have been given to the Post by Trump 's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani , who is known for making discredited claims about the Bidens .
The venue is also suspect .
The pro-Trump New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch , a steady supporter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Trump 's reelection prospects .
The lead reporter was a former producer for Sean Hannity , Trump 's best friend on his favorite news network , Fox News , also controlled by the Murdochs .
And the story asserted the existence of a meeting absent any documentation that it actually occurred .
( The Biden campaign says the tabloid never sought comment on the veracity of the claims . )
The context also screams for caution : U.S. officials say Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to keep Hunter Biden 's business dealings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ According to The Washington Post , intelligence officials warned the White House last year that Russian operatives had sought to give misinformation to Giuliani to be used against the Bidens .
And NBC is now reporting that the FBI is investigating whether the material in the New York Post story originated in a foreign power 's disinformation campaign .
With all these warning signs , other news organizations , including NPR , have held back .
Reporters who shared the New York Post story on social media found themselves denounced by Democrats and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blocked and Facebook restricted the spread of the story , rare moves that gave conservatives a chance for outrage regardless of the merits of the reporting .
The social media giants soon found themselves on the defensive .
All of which obscured the problems with the New York Post 's story itself , and those that followed .
So here are some quick highlights : From pillar to post , the tabloid asserted as fact things presumed to be true .
While the headline links the former vice president to his son 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no proof .
It rests upon an email , supposedly from a Ukrainian businessman to the younger Biden , thanking him for `` an opportunity to meet your father . ''
Biden 's campaign spokesman , Andrew Bates , responded , `` We have reviewed Joe Biden 's official schedules from the time and no meeting , as alleged by the New York Post , ever took place . ''
There is some wiggle room in that denial .
But that 's not proof , either .
The New York Post nonetheless asserted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there was a `` never-before-revealed meeting . ''
Second , let 's talk about the origin of those emails , working backward from the article 's account .
The New York Post secured them from a copy of a laptop 's hard drive given to the paper by Giuliani , after learning of their existence from former Trump campaign CEO and political adviser Steve Bannon .
The laptop had been taken to a repair shop in Delaware ; the shop 's owner appears to have reviewed its contents and given it to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delivering that to Giuliani 's attorney .
The New York Post reported that the computer repair specialist `` could n't positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden , but said the laptop bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation , named after Hunter 's late brother . ''
So , it 's not clear who brought it in .
As it turns out , Bannon told a leading Dutch public broadcaster last month that he had a copy of Hunter Biden 's hard drive .
`` You 'll see .
Stand by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on camera .
Now about Giuliani : Few advocates and surrogates have been more dogged on Trump 's behalf than the former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney .
Especially on the topic of Ukraine and the Bidens .
Giuliani has repeatedly amplified discredited claims , to the point that Fox News ' internal research team warned the network 's journalists against relying upon him .
Among the sources Giuliani turned to was a man whom the Trump administration 's Treasury Department has designated as a Russian agent .
Last month , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disinformation in Ukraine to spur unfounded corruption investigations and media coverage in hopes of damaging Biden and influencing the 2020 race .
Giuliani did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story .
This story would fit neatly within that rubric .
We do n't know whether those emails were somehow hacked and doctored , or completely fabricated .
( Even Murdoch 's Wall Street Journal acknowledged the point , writing `` assuming the emails turned up by the New York Post are real ... '' as it editorialized against Twitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the reporter with the lead byline for a moment ?
Post deputy political editor Emma-Jo Morris ' reports on Biden this past week constitute the sum total of her professional bylines .
( That is , other than some posts Morris wrote in the summer of 2015 as a college intern for the conservative Washington Free Beacon . )
Prior to joining the Post in early spring , Morris ' most prominent media job involved her three years and eight months as a producer for Hannity , the Fox News star who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advisers .
Morris did not reply to requests for comment sent to her social media accounts .
She shared bylines with Gabrielle Fonrouge , a six-year veteran of the Post who earlier reported for NPR member station WSHU in Connecticut .
( One small note : Fonrouge 's byline came second .
Were they assigned alphabetically , it would have appeared first .
That suggests that Morris is the lead reporter on this project .
But , as with just about everything in this story , that 's not firm proof , either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has suggested Joe Biden acted improperly in Ukraine .
Let us remember that Trump 's demand for investigations of the Bidens ' actions in Ukraine formed the foundation of the president 's impeachment by the House of Representatives last year .
Hannity actively sought to discredit those who offered damning testimony against the president .
The New York Post 's story and its ensuing allegations against Hunter Biden , based on the same cache of material , has propelled its corporate cousin as well .
As the days tick down toward Election Day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tabloid 's reporting to unleash a fusillade against the former vice president across its most watched shows — like the grand finale of a fireworks display .
None of that sound and fury requires the rest of the press to accept those claims as true .
They should n't .
Not without additional reporting and verification .
The New York Post story could someday be proven accurate , or largely right .
Or perhaps what was published is a far cry from investigative journalism , but rather speculative partisan advocacy .
A totem @ @ @ @ @

Analysis: Questionable 'N.Y. Post' Scoop Driven By Ex-Hannity Producer And Giuliani
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jeff J Mitchell and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Jeff J Mitchell and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
It is a classic moment in the weeks before Election Day: a news outlet runs a front-page exclusive promising scandalous revelations about a big-ticket candidate.
This week, the New York Post published a story based on what it says are emails — "smoking gun" emails, it calls them — sent by a Ukrainian business executive to the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The story fits snugly into a narrative from President Trump and his allies that Hunter Biden's zealous pursuit of business ties abroad also compromised the former vice president.
Yet this was a story marked more by red flags than investigative rigor.
To start, the emails have not been verified as authentic. They were said to have been extracted from a computer assumed — but not proven — to have belonged to the younger Biden. They were said to have been given to the Post by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who is known for making discredited claims about the Bidens.
The venue is also suspect. The pro-Trump New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a steady supporter of the president despite recently casting doubt on Trump's reelection prospects. The lead reporter was a former producer for Sean Hannity, Trump's best friend on his favorite news network, Fox News, also controlled by the Murdochs. And the story asserted the existence of a meeting absent any documentation that it actually occurred. (The Biden campaign says the tabloid never sought comment on the veracity of the claims.)
The context also screams for caution: U.S. officials say Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to keep Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine in the public eye. According to The Washington Post, intelligence officials warned the White House last year that Russian operatives had sought to give misinformation to Giuliani to be used against the Bidens. And NBC is now reporting that the FBI is investigating whether the material in the New York Post story originated in a foreign power's disinformation campaign.
With all these warning signs, other news organizations, including NPR, have held back. Reporters who shared the New York Post story on social media found themselves denounced by Democrats and even many of their peers. Twitter blocked and Facebook restricted the spread of the story, rare moves that gave conservatives a chance for outrage regardless of the merits of the reporting. The social media giants soon found themselves on the defensive.
All of which obscured the problems with the New York Post's story itself, and those that followed.
So here are some quick highlights:
From pillar to post, the tabloid asserted as fact things presumed to be true. While the headline links the former vice president to his son's business dealings, the story serves up no proof. It rests upon an email, supposedly from a Ukrainian businessman to the younger Biden, thanking him for "an opportunity to meet your father."
Biden's campaign spokesman, Andrew Bates, responded, "We have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place." There is some wiggle room in that denial. But that's not proof, either. The New York Post nonetheless asserted, breathlessly, and assuredly, that there was a "never-before-revealed meeting."
Second, let's talk about the origin of those emails, working backward from the article's account. The New York Post secured them from a copy of a laptop's hard drive given to the paper by Giuliani, after learning of their existence from former Trump campaign CEO and political adviser Steve Bannon.
The laptop had been taken to a repair shop in Delaware; the shop's owner appears to have reviewed its contents and given it to the FBI, after making a copy and delivering that to Giuliani's attorney. The New York Post reported that the computer repair specialist "couldn't positively identify the customer as Hunter Biden, but said the laptop bore a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, named after Hunter's late brother."
So, it's not clear who brought it in.
As it turns out, Bannon told a leading Dutch public broadcaster last month that he had a copy of Hunter Biden's hard drive.
"You'll see. Stand by. Stand by," Bannon teased on camera.
Now about Giuliani: Few advocates and surrogates have been more dogged on Trump's behalf than the former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney.
Especially on the topic of Ukraine and the Bidens.
Giuliani has repeatedly amplified discredited claims, to the point that Fox News' internal research team warned the network's journalists against relying upon him. Among the sources Giuliani turned to was a man whom the Trump administration's Treasury Department has designated as a Russian agent. Last month, Treasury officials said Andrii Derkach has pushed disinformation in Ukraine to spur unfounded corruption investigations and media coverage in hopes of damaging Biden and influencing the 2020 race. Giuliani did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
This story would fit neatly within that rubric. We don't know whether those emails were somehow hacked and doctored, or completely fabricated. (Even Murdoch's Wall Street Journal acknowledged the point, writing "assuming the emails turned up by the New York Post are real..." as it editorialized against Twitter and Facebook.)
Shall we turn to the reporter with the lead byline for a moment?
Post deputy political editor Emma-Jo Morris' reports on Biden this past week constitute the sum total of her professional bylines. (That is, other than some posts Morris wrote in the summer of 2015 as a college intern for the conservative Washington Free Beacon.)
Prior to joining the Post in early spring, Morris' most prominent media job involved her three years and eight months as a producer for Hannity, the Fox News star who is one of the president's closest advisers. Morris did not reply to requests for comment sent to her social media accounts. She shared bylines with Gabrielle Fonrouge, a six-year veteran of the Post who earlier reported for NPR member station WSHU in Connecticut. (One small note: Fonrouge's byline came second. Were they assigned alphabetically, it would have appeared first. That suggests that Morris is the lead reporter on this project. But, as with just about everything in this story, that's not firm proof, either.)
On Fox, Hannity repeatedly has suggested Joe Biden acted improperly in Ukraine. Let us remember that Trump's demand for investigations of the Bidens' actions in Ukraine formed the foundation of the president's impeachment by the House of Representatives last year. Hannity actively sought to discredit those who offered damning testimony against the president.
The New York Post's story and its ensuing allegations against Hunter Biden, based on the same cache of material, has propelled its corporate cousin as well. As the days tick down toward Election Day, Fox News took inspiration from the tabloid's reporting to unleash a fusillade against the former vice president across its most watched shows — like the grand finale of a fireworks display.
None of that sound and fury requires the rest of the press to accept those claims as true. They shouldn't. Not without additional reporting and verification.
The New York Post story could someday be proven accurate, or largely right. Or perhaps what was published is a far cry from investigative journalism, but rather speculative partisan advocacy. A totem of our media moment.


npr--2020-10-17--The Story Behind Kamala Harris' Truancy Program

Our latest episode of Code Switch , we took a look at vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris 's record as a prosecutor , and how she used her power as San Francisco 's district attorney and later , as California 's attorney general to shape the criminal justice system .
And of that record , one of the initiatives that has drawn the most attention is the truancy program that she pushed for in the state legislature .
Passed in 2011 , the law allowed district attorneys to charge parents with a misdemeanor if their children missed 10 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In 2019 , HuffPost reporter Molly Redden wrote about the families affected by this truancy program , including a Black mother named Cheree Peoples , who was arrested in April of 2013 .
She came on the show to help explain why this program , which initially launched without much criticism , ended up becoming so controversial , and why it disproportionately affected families of color .
Here 's the extended cut of our conversation , which has been edited and condensed for clarity .
So I guess we should start with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and how did she get ensnared in this truancy program ?
Cheree is a mother in California , and her daughter has a chronic illness .
Her name is Shayla , and she has sickle cell anemia , a really painful genetic disease that causes lots of complications .
It 's pretty typical for people who live with this disability to miss a lot of school if they 're children .
As her daughter missed a lot of school for valid medical reasons , Cheree and the school were in a dispute about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absences .
She lived in Orange County , which is a fairly conservative , `` law and order '' type of county .
The district attorney there was up for reelection , and he did a big truancy sweep under this law , which Kamala Harris had fought for when she was the D.A .
of San Francisco and oversaw its implementation when she was attorney general .
There was a big sweep , and one of the parents arrested that morning and perp-walked in front of some cameras was Cheree Peoples .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ What happened ?
She was in her house one morning , and the police showed up and handcuffed her .
She had time to put on a jacket over her pajamas .
And when she was walked by the police out of her apartment where she lived with her daughter , there were news cameras waiting , and she was booked by the police .
What she said to me was that she was shocked .
She was really floored .
And she said to me , `` You 'd swear I 'd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her like a really excessive show of force for what was essentially a misunderstanding between her and her child 's school .
So she sort of became the face of the truancy program in a way , as one of the most visible `` perpetrators . ''
Can you walk us through Harris 's truancy program : what it was , how it came to be , how it worked ?
[ Harris ] fought for this law , which raised the financial penalty and made it a criminal misdemeanor for parents , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when their children missed at least 10 percent of school time .
Big picture , [ Peoples 's case ] was one of the most extreme examples of how this law was used .
More broadly , what the law did was create a more standardized way for local law enforcement officials to get involved with making sure kids go to school every day .
And so very few parents were arrested and perp walked in this really punitive and splashy way .
But what did happen to a lot of families is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that asked parents : Why ca n't why ca n't you get your act together ?
Why ca n't you send your kids to school ?
I thought it was really interesting to look at [ Harris 's ] involvement in this issue , because she did n't invent the idea of punishing parents when their kids miss school .
California already had a law on its books .
Her innovation was to build a really standardized way for local district attorneys to get involved in pressuring parents to make sure their kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of education advocates were happy that she brought attention to the issue , because they say attention is actually the number one way we solve truancy .
They think it 's really important to call people 's attention to the fact that , Hey , it adds up when your kids miss school .
What Harris also intended to do was to build a system where the school district officials , teachers and parents could all sit down and talk through the problems : Why is n't your kid coming to school ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ give you to help make sure that your child goes to school every day ?
And what she sort of layered on top of that was , You will get a series of increasingly scary warnings from the district attorney if this problem does n't get solved .
And that 's what people really put their finger on as what they disliked about this program : As the [ absenteeism ] issue continues , the blame increasingly turns toward the parents .
The message becomes : We 're giving you everything .
Why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And the reality is that the reasons why kids miss school so often are not totally under the parent 's control .
But we just increasingly blame the parents .
And that is a very typical American way of dealing with school .
I mean , that goes back decades , and even hundreds of years .
So it 's not fair to lay that all at Harris 's feet .
But what people would say in response is that when you use the criminal justice system to solve social problems , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your intentions were .
Just hearing how this plan was conceived , it was not hard to sort of surmise who was going to get caught up in the system .
It was probably going to be mothers of color , probably mothers with disabilities or mothers of children with disabilities , mothers who might be housing-insecure or who were experiencing homelessness .
Is that who ended up getting tangled up in this initiative ?
It 's a little bit hard to answer that question , because California also has n't kept great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this initiative .
Harris wanted them to keep better data , but she did n't get everything she wanted .
But generally , when you look nationwide , all of the studies of truancy have found that the children most likely to be labeled truant are Native American children and Black children .
And I think what 's really important to keep in mind is that education advocates have started talking about the issue as one of chronic absenteeism , rather than truancy .
And part of the reason why is because if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason , like they 're sick a lot , that 's an excused absence .
But those missed days of education still add up , and still can cause some problems .
Truancy is more of a measure of blame rather than a measure of how much you 've missed school .
It 's saying ; How much did you miss school ?
Oh , and it 's your family 's fault .
And blame is subject to a lot of kinds of biases when we start making judgments about why kids go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact that the reasons why children tend to be absent are all issues that impact people of color more and uniquely , like chronic illness , facets of poverty , access to reliable transportation .
Everything that contributes to truancy is a factor that tends to overly impact Black and Native American families .
So when Kamala Harris is spinning up this idea in San Francisco , who supported it , and who was opposed to it ?
I think she zeroed in on this for a couple of reasons .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she was learning things about who were the city 's homicide victims and who was committing homicides .
And in both cases , she found that a lot of them were high school dropouts .
And that 's when she started to think about truancy , because missing a lot of school is linked to dropping out of school .
The way she described why she wanted to get involved was , `` We need to do things differently . ''
But I also think she knew that , at the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really a political downside to saying , `` These parents are not meeting their responsibilities , it 's causing problems for society at large , and we should crack down on them for the good of the children . ''
The law passed with pretty broad support .
But some public defenders and others were like , Hey , wait a minute .
Do n't you think that this is just going to be another way we crack down on people of color , on parents who are facing a whole lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has caused ?
But at the time , those were not calls that were echoed more broadly .
The skepticism was fairly limited .
It 's interesting if you think about the sort of conclusion she 's making .
So if you do n't complete high school , you have a much higher likelihood of being the victim of violent crime or to perpetrate violent crime , and to have all this contact with the criminal justice system .
And she was like , Okay , the solution to that is to open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact with the criminal justice system .
This is really , really common , right ?
I think it 's a case of looking at two symptoms of a really complicated web of problems and treating one of the symptoms .
It speaks to the fact that she was a prosecutor , and so she had only the tools of a prosecutor .
Part of the reason why she was looking at the symptoms and treating the symptoms [ instead of the root problems ] , is that 's what we make law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do n't spend money and commit resources to fixing the host of problems that precede that .
Kamala Harris 's record as a prosecutor had come under a lot of scrutiny even before she was named as Joe Biden 's running mate .
So how has she addressed this program ?
After we reported on Cheree 's case , Harris talked about regretting that some district attorneys had used this law , which she had fought for with good intentions , to crack down really hard on and to criminalize the parents .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ her law was intended to give schools the tools to make sure parents work with them to solve these problems .
But the general response to that has been something that you mentioned earlier , which is that this law brings parents and students into contact with law enforcement , often at a time when these families are really vulnerable , having issues with job loss or moving because of housing instability .
Part of why I wanted to look at this also was because to me , it kind of speaks to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system , which Kamala Harris has been a part of for so much of her professional career , to solve really big overarching problems .
She 's talked about working from within the system to change it .
And I think this is a really clear case of how there are limitations to that .
What is the legacy of the program ?
Is it still in place in some capacity ?
The law she passed is still in place , and there was another truancy law on the books before she passed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use the law to cite parents and take them to court , they 've tended to use the law Harris fought for to bring up more serious charges .
Other jurisdictions have embraced the spirit of her program , and use the law that she passed as the threat , in order to get parents to come to conferences and sit down with school officials and talk through what the issue is .
So both things are happening .
I visited one jurisdiction where they 've set up truancy courts , usually under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And that 's a place where they can get parents to come in on a regular basis , and the judge checks and makes sure that they 're complying with attendance requirements .
And then once that happens , usually it goes off their record and does n't end with a fine or jail time .
An unfortunate thing is that California keeps changing the way that it measures truancy .
Part of that is to keep up with our evolving understanding of what is actually important to measure .
But they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ measure it , and then they do n't really centralize that data very well .
So we ca n't really say if the law that Harris fought for brought the truancy rate up or down or made no change , because they 're not counting very well .
And that 's not on her ; she wanted the state to keep count .
But it 's telling about the way that we approach criminal justice a lot in this country .
We identify a problem .
We pass a law .
It goes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Harris 's case , there 's a law on the books , and we do n't really know how this is impacting people 's lives .
What happened to Cheree Peoples and her daughter ?
Cheree Peoples wound up fighting these charges in court for a really long time .
They got passed among different prosecutors and detectives , and for a long time , there was pressure on her to plead guilty to this .
And she would n't do it .
She felt like this was really unfair .
She knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ child was skipping school willy-nilly ; she had a good reason that the school was aware of , and that the issue was that she and the school needed to come to an agreement about accommodating her daughter 's disability .
She held fast , and eventually the charges were dropped .
To this day , she does n't completely know why .
While she was fighting this in court , she was also caring for her daughter .
She struggles with employment because her daughter 's illness really takes a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all-encompassing in their lives sometimes .
This was a really tough time for her .

The Story Behind Kamala Harris' Truancy Program
Enlarge this image toggle caption Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Our latest episode of Code Switch, we took a look at vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor, and how she used her power as San Francisco's district attorney and later, as California's attorney general to shape the criminal justice system.
And of that record, one of the initiatives that has drawn the most attention is the truancy program that she pushed for in the state legislature. Passed in 2011, the law allowed district attorneys to charge parents with a misdemeanor if their children missed 10 percent of the school year without a valid reason.
In 2019, HuffPost reporter Molly Redden wrote about the families affected by this truancy program, including a Black mother named Cheree Peoples, who was arrested in April of 2013. She came on the show to help explain why this program, which initially launched without much criticism, ended up becoming so controversial, and why it disproportionately affected families of color. Here's the extended cut of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.
So I guess we should start with Cheree Peoples. Who was she, and how did she get ensnared in this truancy program?
Cheree is a mother in California, and her daughter has a chronic illness. Her name is Shayla, and she has sickle cell anemia, a really painful genetic disease that causes lots of complications. It's pretty typical for people who live with this disability to miss a lot of school if they're children. As her daughter missed a lot of school for valid medical reasons, Cheree and the school were in a dispute about how to accommodate and account for those absences.
She lived in Orange County, which is a fairly conservative, "law and order" type of county. The district attorney there was up for reelection, and he did a big truancy sweep under this law, which Kamala Harris had fought for when she was the D.A. of San Francisco and oversaw its implementation when she was attorney general. There was a big sweep, and one of the parents arrested that morning and perp-walked in front of some cameras was Cheree Peoples.
Take us through this perp walk. What happened?
She was in her house one morning, and the police showed up and handcuffed her. She had time to put on a jacket over her pajamas. And when she was walked by the police out of her apartment where she lived with her daughter, there were news cameras waiting, and she was booked by the police. What she said to me was that she was shocked. She was really floored. And she said to me, "You'd swear I'd killed somebody." It felt to her like a really excessive show of force for what was essentially a misunderstanding between her and her child's school.
So she sort of became the face of the truancy program in a way, as one of the most visible "perpetrators." Can you walk us through Harris's truancy program: what it was, how it came to be, how it worked?
[Harris] fought for this law, which raised the financial penalty and made it a criminal misdemeanor for parents, up to a year in jail, when their children missed at least 10 percent of school time. Big picture, [Peoples's case] was one of the most extreme examples of how this law was used. More broadly, what the law did was create a more standardized way for local law enforcement officials to get involved with making sure kids go to school every day. And so very few parents were arrested and perp walked in this really punitive and splashy way. But what did happen to a lot of families is that they were ushered into a system that asked parents: Why can't why can't you get your act together? Why can't you send your kids to school?
I thought it was really interesting to look at [Harris's] involvement in this issue, because she didn't invent the idea of punishing parents when their kids miss school. California already had a law on its books. Her innovation was to build a really standardized way for local district attorneys to get involved in pressuring parents to make sure their kids go to school. And a lot of education advocates were happy that she brought attention to the issue, because they say attention is actually the number one way we solve truancy. They think it's really important to call people's attention to the fact that, Hey, it adds up when your kids miss school.
What Harris also intended to do was to build a system where the school district officials, teachers and parents could all sit down and talk through the problems: Why isn't your kid coming to school? What are the resources that we could give you to help make sure that your child goes to school every day? And what she sort of layered on top of that was, You will get a series of increasingly scary warnings from the district attorney if this problem doesn't get solved. And that's what people really put their finger on as what they disliked about this program: As the [absenteeism] issue continues, the blame increasingly turns toward the parents. The message becomes: We're giving you everything. Why can't you make this work?
And the reality is that the reasons why kids miss school so often are not totally under the parent's control. But we just increasingly blame the parents. And that is a very typical American way of dealing with school. I mean, that goes back decades, and even hundreds of years. So it's not fair to lay that all at Harris's feet. But what people would say in response is that when you use the criminal justice system to solve social problems, you will criminalize people no matter how good your intentions were.
Just hearing how this plan was conceived, it was not hard to sort of surmise who was going to get caught up in the system. It was probably going to be mothers of color, probably mothers with disabilities or mothers of children with disabilities, mothers who might be housing-insecure or who were experiencing homelessness. Is that who ended up getting tangled up in this initiative?
It's a little bit hard to answer that question, because California also hasn't kept great data on who got caught up in this initiative. Harris wanted them to keep better data, but she didn't get everything she wanted. But generally, when you look nationwide, all of the studies of truancy have found that the children most likely to be labeled truant are Native American children and Black children. And I think what's really important to keep in mind is that education advocates have started talking about the issue as one of chronic absenteeism, rather than truancy. And part of the reason why is because if a child misses school for a valid reason, like they're sick a lot, that's an excused absence. But those missed days of education still add up, and still can cause some problems.
Truancy is more of a measure of blame rather than a measure of how much you've missed school. It's saying; How much did you miss school? Oh, and it's your family's fault. And blame is subject to a lot of kinds of biases when we start making judgments about why kids go to school. And then there's the fact that the reasons why children tend to be absent are all issues that impact people of color more and uniquely, like chronic illness, facets of poverty, access to reliable transportation. Everything that contributes to truancy is a factor that tends to overly impact Black and Native American families.
So when Kamala Harris is spinning up this idea in San Francisco, who supported it, and who was opposed to it?
I think she zeroed in on this for a couple of reasons. When she was the San Francisco district attorney, she was learning things about who were the city's homicide victims and who was committing homicides. And in both cases, she found that a lot of them were high school dropouts. And that's when she started to think about truancy, because missing a lot of school is linked to dropping out of school.
The way she described why she wanted to get involved was, "We need to do things differently." But I also think she knew that, at the time in the mid-2000s, there wasn't really a political downside to saying, "These parents are not meeting their responsibilities, it's causing problems for society at large, and we should crack down on them for the good of the children."
The law passed with pretty broad support. But some public defenders and others were like, Hey, wait a minute. Don't you think that this is just going to be another way we crack down on people of color, on parents who are facing a whole lot of issues, some of which the state has caused? But at the time, those were not calls that were echoed more broadly. The skepticism was fairly limited.
It's interesting if you think about the sort of conclusion she's making. So if you don't complete high school, you have a much higher likelihood of being the victim of violent crime or to perpetrate violent crime, and to have all this contact with the criminal justice system. And she was like, Okay, the solution to that is to open up another opportunity for them to have contact with the criminal justice system.
This is really, really common, right? I think it's a case of looking at two symptoms of a really complicated web of problems and treating one of the symptoms. It speaks to the fact that she was a prosecutor, and so she had only the tools of a prosecutor. Part of the reason why she was looking at the symptoms and treating the symptoms [instead of the root problems], is that's what we make law enforcement do in this country. We don't spend money and commit resources to fixing the host of problems that precede that.
Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor had come under a lot of scrutiny even before she was named as Joe Biden's running mate. So how has she addressed this program?
After we reported on Cheree's case, Harris talked about regretting that some district attorneys had used this law, which she had fought for with good intentions, to crack down really hard on and to criminalize the parents. She has talked a lot about how her law was intended to give schools the tools to make sure parents work with them to solve these problems. But the general response to that has been something that you mentioned earlier, which is that this law brings parents and students into contact with law enforcement, often at a time when these families are really vulnerable, having issues with job loss or moving because of housing instability.
Part of why I wanted to look at this also was because to me, it kind of speaks to the limits of using the criminal justice system,which Kamala Harris has been a part of for so much of her professional career, to solve really big overarching problems. She's talked about working from within the system to change it. And I think this is a really clear case of how there are limitations to that.
What is the legacy of the program? Is it still in place in some capacity?
The law she passed is still in place, and there was another truancy law on the books before she passed this one. For jurisdictions that mainly use the law to cite parents and take them to court, they've tended to use the law Harris fought for to bring up more serious charges. Other jurisdictions have embraced the spirit of her program, and use the law that she passed as the threat, in order to get parents to come to conferences and sit down with school officials and talk through what the issue is. So both things are happening.
I visited one jurisdiction where they've set up truancy courts, usually under the auspices of the existing family court. And that's a place where they can get parents to come in on a regular basis, and the judge checks and makes sure that they're complying with attendance requirements. And then once that happens, usually it goes off their record and doesn't end with a fine or jail time.
An unfortunate thing is that California keeps changing the way that it measures truancy. Part of that is to keep up with our evolving understanding of what is actually important to measure. But they keep changing it, ask schools to measure it, and then they don't really centralize that data very well. So we can't really say if the law that Harris fought for brought the truancy rate up or down or made no change, because they're not counting very well. And that's not on her; she wanted the state to keep count. But it's telling about the way that we approach criminal justice a lot in this country. We identify a problem. We pass a law. It goes into the bureaucracy. And now with Harris's case, there's a law on the books, and we don't really know how this is impacting people's lives.
What happened to Cheree Peoples and her daughter?
Cheree Peoples wound up fighting these charges in court for a really long time. They got passed among different prosecutors and detectives, and for a long time, there was pressure on her to plead guilty to this. And she wouldn't do it. She felt like this was really unfair. She knew that the issue wasn't that her child was skipping school willy-nilly; she had a good reason that the school was aware of, and that the issue was that she and the school needed to come to an agreement about accommodating her daughter's disability. She held fast, and eventually the charges were dropped. To this day, she doesn't completely know why.
While she was fighting this in court, she was also caring for her daughter. She struggles with employment because her daughter's illness really takes a lot of care and management. It can be all-encompassing in their lives sometimes. This was a really tough time for her.


npr--2020-10-17--Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places

Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours ?
Too Few Polling Places Kathy spotted the long line of voters as she pulled into the Christian City Welcome Center about 3:30 p.m. , ready to cast her ballot in the June 9 primary election .
Hundreds of people were waiting in the heat and rain outside the lush , tree-lined complex in Union City , an Atlanta suburb with 22,400 residents , nearly 88 % of them Black .
She briefly considered not casting a ballot at all , but decided to stay .
By the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hours later , the polls had officially closed and the electronic scanners were shut down .
Poll workers told her she 'd have to cast a provisional ballot , but they promised that her vote would be counted .
`` I 'm now angry again , I 'm frustrated again , and now I have an added emotion , which is anxiety , '' said Kathy , a human services worker , recalling her emotions at the time .
She asked that her full name not be used because she fears repercussions from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if my ballot is going to count . ''
By the time the last voter finally got inside the welcome center to cast a ballot , it was the next day , June 10 .
The clogged polling locations in metro Atlanta reflect an underlying pattern : the number of places to vote has shrunk statewide , with little recourse .
Although the reduction in polling places has taken place across racial lines , it has primarily caused long lines in nonwhite neighborhoods where voter registration has surged and more residents cast ballots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pruning of polling places started long before the pandemic , which has discouraged people from voting in person .
In Georgia , considered a battleground state for control of the White House and U.S. Senate , the difficulty of voting in Black communities like Union City could possibly tip the results on Nov. 3 .
With massive turnout expected , lines could be even longer than they were for the primary , despite a rise in mail-in voting and Georgians already turning out by the hundreds of thousands to cast ballots early .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ v. Holder decision in 2013 eliminated key federal oversight of election decisions in states with histories of discrimination , Georgia 's voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million people , yet polling locations have been cut statewide by nearly 10 % , according to an analysis of state and local records by Georgia Public Broadcasting and ProPublica .
Much of the growth has been fueled by younger , nonwhite voters , especially in nine metro Atlanta counties , where four out of five new voters were nonwhite , according to the Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ metro Atlanta area has been hit particularly hard .
The nine counties — Fulton , Gwinnett , Forsyth , DeKalb , Cobb , Hall , Cherokee , Henry and Clayton — have nearly half of the state 's active voters but only 38 % of the polling places , according to the analysis .
As a result , the average number of voters packed into each polling location in those counties grew by nearly 40 % , from about 2,600 in 2012 to more than 3,600 per polling place as of Oct. 9 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a last-minute push that opened more than 90 polling places just weeks before the November election has left many voters uncertain about where to vote or how long they might wait to cast a ballot .
The growth in registered voters has outstripped the number of available polling places in both predominantly white and Black neighborhoods .
But the lines to vote have been longer in Black areas , because Black voters are more likely than whites to cast their ballots in person on Election Day and are more reluctant to vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data and recent studies .
Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica found that about two-thirds of the polling places that had to stay open late for the June primary to accommodate waiting voters were in majority-Black neighborhoods , even though they made up only about one-third of the state 's polling places .
An analysis by Stanford University political science professor Jonathan Rodden of the data collected by Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica found that the average wait time after 7 p.m. across Georgia was 51 minutes in polling places that were 90 % or more nonwhite , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that were 90 % white .
Georgia law sets a cap of 2,000 voters for a polling place that has experienced significant voter delays , but that limit is rarely , if ever , enforced .
Our analysis found that , in both majority Black and majority white neighborhoods , about nine of every 10 precincts are assigned to polling places with more than 2,000 people .
A June 2020 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School found that the average number of voters assigned to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five years in Georgia , Louisiana , Mississippi and South Carolina — all states with substantial Black populations that before the Shelby decision needed federal approval to close polling places under the Voting Rights Act .
And though dozens of states have regulations on the size of voting precincts and polling places or the number of voting machines , the analysis found that many jurisdictions do not abide by them .
Georgia 's state leadership and elections officials have largely ignored complaints about poll consolidations even as they tout record growth in voter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2010 to 2018 , when most of Georgia 's poll closures occurred , Brian Kemp , now the governor , took a laissez-faire attitude toward county-run election practices , save for a 2015 document that spelled out methods officials could use to shutter polling places to show `` how the change can benefit voters and the public interest . ''
Kemp 's office declined to comment Thursday on the letter or why poll closures went unchallenged by state officials .
His spokesperson referred to his previous statements that he did not encourage officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guidance on how to follow the law .
The inaction has left Black voters in Georgia facing barriers reminiscent of Jim Crow laws , said Adrienne Jones , a political science professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta who has studied the impact of the landmark Shelby decision on Black voters .
Voter suppression `` is happening with these voter impediments that are being imposed , '' Jones said .
`` You 're closing down polling places so people have a more difficult time getting there .
You 're making vote-by-mail difficult or confusing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about which ballots are going to be accepted , and it means that people have less trust in our state . ''
In August , on the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act , the Democratic Party of Georgia , the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and three Georgia voters sued the state and more than a dozen counties in federal court , alleging that some of the state 's most populous areas have disenfranchised voters for more than a decade with long lines caused by inadequate staff , training , equipment and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was dismissed after the judge ruled the parties had no standing to file , warned of upheaval on Nov. 3 , Election Day .
`` As bad as the situation would be in normal circumstances , the burden is made far worse by the global pandemic , '' the lawsuit stated .
`` Absent judicial intervention , Georgia is set for more of the same ( and likely far worse than it has ever seen ) in November . ''
Republican Brad Raffensperger , who took over as secretary of state in January @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and polling places , but he has been unable to push these changes through the GOP-controlled legislature .
Raffensperger 's office blames Democrats and county elections officials for opposing his efforts to improve access .
`` As Secretary of State , Brad Raffensperger pushed legislation that would force counties to expand polling locations and directly address these issues , '' Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said in an email .
`` Unfortunately , every single Democratic Senator and Representative voted against this proposal saying that it would cause 'confusion . '
Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holding back progress and it is n't the Secretary of State 's Office . ''
Democrats and voting rights groups said they opposed the Raffensperger-backed bill because they believed it weakened state election supervision and made it harder for people to vote .
The proposal shifted even more responsibility for elections from the state to counties , `` without the necessary training , funding or support , '' Lauren Groh-Wargo , chief executive of Fair Fight , a voting rights group founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams , said at the time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stretches back more than a century , with poll taxes , literacy and citizenship tests , and intimidation that disenfranchised many Black citizens .
Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , Georgia and eight other states with histories of discrimination were required to seek federal approval before making changes such as eliminating polling places in Black neighborhoods or shifting polling locations at the last minute .
Dozens of counties and townships in six more states also had to seek approval .
Then in 2013 , in a case brought by Shelby County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threw out the method for determining which jurisdictions had to seek approval , saying it was unconstitutional because it was outdated .
The court suggested that Congress could pass new guidelines , but lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement , leaving the pre-clearance requirement unenforceable .
Jones , the Morehouse professor , said the recent changes would clearly have required federal approval if not for the Shelby decision .
`` All of these kinds of exercises ... would have had to be considered by the Department of Justice — or would not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been clear that the Department of Justice would have dinged them , '' she said .
`` And part of that has to do with the importance of Black voters , particularly in the Democratic Party . ''
Exacerbating Shelby 's impact in Georgia was an explosion in voter registrations .
Thanks in part to the state 's `` motor voter '' law that updates records whenever a voter interacts with the Department of Driver Services , the state 's voter rolls have swelled by a third since the 2012 presidential election .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Henry , the voting population shifted from majority white to majority nonwhite , contributing to Georgia 's transition from red state to purple .
As the number of voters was swelling , county officials across the state began a steady stream of closures of polling locations .
By June 2020 , Georgia voters had 331 fewer polling places than in November 2012 , a 13 % reduction .
Because of added pressure from the coronavirus pandemic , metro Atlanta alone had lost 82 voting locations by the time June 's primary rolled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's 159 counties had closed at least one polling place since 2012 .
Fulton County , which includes Atlanta , and DeKalb County realigned dozens of precincts after some municipalities were annexed or newly established .
Other counties cited changes in voter behavior , or tight budgets , but the Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica analysis found only nominal savings .
In Union City , about 20 minutes southwest of Atlanta in Fulton County , the number of active voters has grown about 60 % since 2012 .
Three polls were open for the June @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Christian City Welcome Center .
Two additional polling places are being set up for Nov. 3 , including one that will reduce the burden on the Welcome Center .
Three others , however , will still have more than 5,000 voters each .
In a September county elections board meeting , Fulton officials said the goal had been to add more polling places in 2020 to accommodate population growth .
The coronavirus pandemic resulted in closures or relocations , but most sites have been reopened .
The influx of voters meant that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Statewide , the number of voters served by the average polling place rose 47 % , from 2,046 voters in 2012 to 3,003 as of Oct. 9 , according to the analysis .
Some rural counties have as many as 22,000 voters assigned to a single polling place .
Forsyth County , one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation , has grown its voter rolls by nearly 60 % — or 60,000 voters — in the last eight years .
Forsyth , a mostly white county about 45 minutes ' drive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8,000 voters per polling place .
Officials cut nine of its 25 polling places in 2013 and another after the 2016 election but added back five locations in 2019 .
No additional sites are expected to be opened for the November election .
Fulton County added nearly a quarter-million voters while consolidating voting locations .
When the coronavirus struck , the last-minute unavailability of two polling places forced the assignment of 16,000 people to vote in June at Park Tavern , a restaurant/event space that reported 350 voters in line before the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County 's seven most congested polling places serve predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods .
In Lawrenceville , home to one of the largest Black populations in the county , a judge ordered polls at the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources to stay open late during the primary for the nearly 7,000 voters assigned there .
It was one of 16 polling locations with missing voting machines on the morning of the primary election .
Angela Maddox , a health care worker , cast her ballot there for the Aug. 11 primary runoff , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the ballot .
She said she was grateful that equipment was in place and low turnout meant no lines .
The reports of voters waiting six hours or more in the primary were `` disgusting , '' she said .
`` I know it 's a big problem and it seems to continuously happen in Black communities , '' she said .
`` That 's where you tend to see a lot of the machines breaking down , or fewer machines , or any and everything to not count our vote , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County officials obtained federal approval in 2010 — before the Shelby decision — to reduce the number of polls from 163 to 156 , citing cost savings and operational efficiency .
Since then , the county has kept the same number of polling places while adding more than 175,000 active voters .
The average polling place handled 3,649 voters in the June primary and is set for 3,719 for November .
Since the Shelby decision , the Georgia State Election Board , chaired by Raffensperger , has been the primary body for investigating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violated election laws and procedures .
But the election board has rarely investigated the sort of violations that the U.S. Department of Justice once stepped in to review under the Voting Rights Act .
Since 2010 , when Kemp began his eight-year stint as secretary of state , the board has heard hundreds of cases , citing individuals for such violations as wearing political gear to the polls , and rebuking counties for mishandling voter registrations or absentee ballots .
But it has taken no action to examine the poll closures that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ backlog of dozens of complaints to accumulate .
In 2015 , Kemp 's office sent the letter to county elections officials that included advice on closing polling places .
In September , with Georgia in the national spotlight over its handling of elections , the board cleared a backlog of nearly 100 outstanding cases dating back to 2014 and referred several to the attorney general 's office for further review .
Among those was Fulton County 's alleged mishandling of the June primary .
The attorney general 's office is still investigating .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ state 's office told four counties — Fulton , DeKalb and Gwinnett in the metro Atlanta area and Chatham County in southeast Georgia — that had long lines , absentee ballot problems and late opening or closing polls in the primary to avoid a repeat by providing weekly updates on poll worker training , polling places and line management plans .
Besides the board 's actions , the Georgia Senate considered a proposal filed in February and endorsed by Raffensperger .
It would have required county elections supervisors to add more equipment or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precincts with more than 2,000 voters , if there was a wait longer than an hour measured at three points on Election Day .
More than 1,500 of Georgia 's 2,655 precincts have at least 2,000 voters — many of them in urban Democratic counties — and Raffensperger said at the time that voters should never have to wait more than 30 minutes .
But the bill , SB 463 , was opposed by Democratic lawmakers and voting rights groups , who argued that any revamping in an election year would cause confusion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from casting their ballot .
`` Do you have any concerns about trying to change the rules of the game in the middle of an election cycle when we have so much litigation that is currently pending with respect to the state 's handling of previous elections ? ''
state Sen. Jen Jordan , a Democrat from Atlanta , asked during the floor debate .
The bill originated in the state Senate , which approved it .
The proposal then went to a state House of Representatives committee , where Republicans substituted a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place issue and barred the secretary of state and county elections officials from sending absentee ballot applications to voters .
Their redesign never reached a floor vote , eliminating any prospect of legislative changes in the 2020 session , which ended in June .
That same month , after the primary election , Raffensperger held a press conference in Fulton County outside Park Tavern , which had processed more voters than 96 % of the state 's polling places .
Flanked by posters highlighting recent election woes , he urged local officials to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ improving technical support and training .
`` We know that we need a more diverse pool of voting locations to spread the load of voters that we are anticipating , '' Raffensperger said .
Nikema Williams , chair of Georgia 's Democratic Party , said that while state officials took little or no action to stop widespread voting problems in nonwhite communities , local elections officials are also responsible , since they ultimately decide whether to close or open more voting sites .
`` We added counties as a defendant in the [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sure that we 're getting this right , '' she said .
`` And at the end of the day , what matters to us is that voters are not negatively impacted at any level of the electoral process . ''
Although the judge chided Democratic officials for offering vague remedies and failing to provide sufficient evidence that long lines are likely in November , Phi Nguyen , litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta , said there is plenty of evidence in plain sight .
Nguyen 's organization has challenged a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including the `` exact match '' policy that blocks voter registrations that do not exactly match a state or federal database .
AAAJA also filed a lawsuit that forced Gwinnett County to change its process for rejecting absentee ballots .
She said the metro Atlanta counties ' election administrators have not kept up with the wave of newer , more diverse voters , increasing the chances of disenfranchisement .
Nguyen was a poll monitor at the Infinite Energy Center arena for the primary and did not leave until the final votes were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 7 p.m. '' Georgia made national news because of the breakdown in our election systems , '' she said .
`` Long lines are certainly an issue and they happen more often in under-resourced places , which tend to be where communities of color live . ''
Some counties in the metro Atlanta area have tried to increase polling locations before the November election .
Just weeks before Nov. 3 , Fulton County approved 91 new polling places , focusing on areas where the lines were longest for the June primary .
Fourteen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four polling places in Union City — will still have more than 5,000 voters assigned , but that 's a sharp drop from the 60 sites that had more than 5,000 voters assigned for the primary election , said Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barron .
`` If you have fewer people assigned to a polling location , you have fewer people that are going to go to that location , '' he said .
`` We had some polling places in June where we had 9,000-17,000 voters assigned to these locations , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone out amongst many more locations . ''
The more than 16,000 primary voters who were assigned to Park Tavern are now split among five polling places , ranging from fewer than 1,500 voters to nearly 5,500 .
Park Tavern will remain a polling site , with about 4,300 voters .
But widespread rejiggering of polling locations just weeks before a presidential election comes with its own risks .
A 2018 study of North Carolina voters from Stanford University found that relocating polling places decreases turnout , especially for younger voters .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for an 80 % early voting rate to minimize voter confusion and other problems on Election Day , when the nation 's eyes will once again be on Georgia .
And they have doubled the election budget to $ 34 million , purchasing two mobile voting buses as polling sites to alleviate early lines and launching a massive outreach campaign to change voter behavior .
There are more than 30 early voting locations , including a mega-voting site at Atlanta 's professional basketball arena equipped with 60 check-in computers and 300 voting machines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early voting Monday , Oct. 12 , officials recorded the second-highest single-day total in recent years .
Statewide , a record 128,000 Georgians braved long lines that first day .
Still , Kathy in Union City is worried that her vote wo n't be counted .
`` When you look at the systemic issues that plague us as a society , oftentimes we 're screaming but we 're not being heard , '' she said .
`` Historically , we have seen that services and resources for Black communities have always been very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extension of that .
... How could there be such a huge disparity ? ''
This article is part of Electionland , ProPublica 's collaborative reporting project covering problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections .

Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places
Enlarge this image toggle caption Dustin Chambers/Reuters Dustin Chambers/Reuters
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica's User's Guide to Democracy, a series of personalized emails that help you understand the upcoming election, from who's on your ballot to how to cast your vote. This article is co-published by ProPublica, Georgia Public Broadcasting and NPR.
Kathy spotted the long line of voters as she pulled into the Christian City Welcome Center about 3:30 p.m., ready to cast her ballot in the June 9 primary election.
Hundreds of people were waiting in the heat and rain outside the lush, tree-lined complex in Union City, an Atlanta suburb with 22,400 residents, nearly 88% of them Black. She briefly considered not casting a ballot at all, but decided to stay.
By the time she got inside more than five hours later, the polls had officially closed and the electronic scanners were shut down. Poll workers told her she'd have to cast a provisional ballot, but they promised that her vote would be counted.
"I'm now angry again, I'm frustrated again, and now I have an added emotion, which is anxiety," said Kathy, a human services worker, recalling her emotions at the time. She asked that her full name not be used because she fears repercussions from speaking out. "I'm wondering if my ballot is going to count."
By the time the last voter finally got inside the welcome center to cast a ballot, it was the next day, June 10.
The clogged polling locations in metro Atlanta reflect an underlying pattern: the number of places to vote has shrunk statewide, with little recourse. Although the reduction in polling places has taken place across racial lines, it has primarily caused long lines in nonwhite neighborhoods where voter registration has surged and more residents cast ballots in person on Election Day. The pruning of polling places started long before the pandemic, which has discouraged people from voting in person.
In Georgia, considered a battleground state for control of the White House and U.S. Senate, the difficulty of voting in Black communities like Union City could possibly tip the results on Nov. 3. With massive turnout expected, lines could be even longer than they were for the primary, despite a rise in mail-in voting and Georgians already turning out by the hundreds of thousands to cast ballots early.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court's Shelby v. Holder decision in 2013 eliminated key federal oversight of election decisions in states with histories of discrimination, Georgia's voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million people, yet polling locations have been cut statewide by nearly 10%, according to an analysis of state and local records by Georgia Public Broadcasting and ProPublica. Much of the growth has been fueled by younger, nonwhite voters, especially in nine metro Atlanta counties, where four out of five new voters were nonwhite, according to the Georgia secretary of state's office.
The metro Atlanta area has been hit particularly hard. The nine counties — Fulton, Gwinnett, Forsyth, DeKalb, Cobb, Hall, Cherokee, Henry and Clayton — have nearly half of the state's active voters but only 38% of the polling places, according to the analysis.
As a result, the average number of voters packed into each polling location in those counties grew by nearly 40%, from about 2,600 in 2012 to more than 3,600 per polling place as of Oct. 9, the analysis shows. In addition, a last-minute push that opened more than 90 polling places just weeks before the November election has left many voters uncertain about where to vote or how long they might wait to cast a ballot.
Packing The Polls Voter registrations in nine counties in the metro Atlanta area have jumped sharply, but the number of polling places hasn't kept pace. As a result, those counties have many more voters assigned to each polling place than the state average. Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica analysis of state records
The growth in registered voters has outstripped the number of available polling places in both predominantly white and Black neighborhoods. But the lines to vote have been longer in Black areas, because Black voters are more likely than whites to cast their ballots in person on Election Day and are more reluctant to vote by mail, according to U.S. census data and recent studies. Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica found that about two-thirds of the polling places that had to stay open late for the June primary to accommodate waiting voters were in majority-Black neighborhoods, even though they made up only about one-third of the state's polling places. An analysis by Stanford University political science professor Jonathan Rodden of the data collected by Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica found that the average wait time after 7 p.m. across Georgia was 51 minutes in polling places that were 90% or more nonwhite, but only six minutes in polling places that were 90% white.
Georgia law sets a cap of 2,000 voters for a polling place that has experienced significant voter delays, but that limit is rarely, if ever, enforced. Our analysis found that, in both majority Black and majority white neighborhoods, about nine of every 10 precincts are assigned to polling places with more than 2,000 people.
A June 2020 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School found that the average number of voters assigned to a polling place has grown in the past five years in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — all states with substantial Black populations that before the Shelby decision needed federal approval to close polling places under the Voting Rights Act. And though dozens of states have regulations on the size of voting precincts and polling places or the number of voting machines, the analysis found that many jurisdictions do not abide by them.
Georgia's state leadership and elections officials have largely ignored complaints about poll consolidations even as they tout record growth in voter registration. As secretary of state from 2010 to 2018, when most of Georgia's poll closures occurred, Brian Kemp, now the governor, took a laissez-faire attitude toward county-run election practices, save for a 2015 document that spelled out methods officials could use to shutter polling places to show "how the change can benefit voters and the public interest."
Kemp's office declined to comment Thursday on the letter or why poll closures went unchallenged by state officials. His spokesperson referred to his previous statements that he did not encourage officials to close polling places but merely offered guidance on how to follow the law.
The inaction has left Black voters in Georgia facing barriers reminiscent of Jim Crow laws, said Adrienne Jones, a political science professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta who has studied the impact of the landmark Shelby decision on Black voters.
Voter suppression "is happening with these voter impediments that are being imposed," Jones said.
"You're closing down polling places so people have a more difficult time getting there. You're making vote-by-mail difficult or confusing. Now we're in court arguing about which ballots are going to be accepted, and it means that people have less trust in our state."
In August, on the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, the Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and three Georgia voters sued the state and more than a dozen counties in federal court, alleging that some of the state's most populous areas have disenfranchised voters for more than a decade with long lines caused by inadequate staff, training, equipment and voting locations.
The suit, which was dismissed after the judge ruled the parties had no standing to file, warned of upheaval on Nov. 3, Election Day.
"As bad as the situation would be in normal circumstances, the burden is made far worse by the global pandemic," the lawsuit stated. "Absent judicial intervention, Georgia is set for more of the same (and likely far worse than it has ever seen) in November."
Republican Brad Raffensperger, who took over as secretary of state in January 2019, has called for more resources and polling places, but he has been unable to push these changes through the GOP-controlled legislature.
Raffensperger's office blames Democrats and county elections officials for opposing his efforts to improve access. "As Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger pushed legislation that would force counties to expand polling locations and directly address these issues," Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said in an email.
"Unfortunately, every single Democratic Senator and Representative voted against this proposal saying that it would cause 'confusion.' Georgia voters deserve to know who is actually holding back progress and it isn't the Secretary of State's Office."
Democrats and voting rights groups said they opposed the Raffensperger-backed bill because they believed it weakened state election supervision and made it harder for people to vote. The proposal shifted even more responsibility for elections from the state to counties, "without the necessary training, funding or support," Lauren Groh-Wargo, chief executive of Fair Fight, a voting rights group founded by former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, said at the time.
A History Of Discrimination
Georgia's history of voting violations stretches back more than a century, with poll taxes, literacy and citizenship tests, and intimidation that disenfranchised many Black citizens.
Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Georgia and eight other states with histories of discrimination were required to seek federal approval before making changes such as eliminating polling places in Black neighborhoods or shifting polling locations at the last minute. Dozens of counties and townships in six more states also had to seek approval.
Then in 2013, in a case brought by Shelby County, Ala., the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the method for determining which jurisdictions had to seek approval, saying it was unconstitutional because it was outdated. The court suggested that Congress could pass new guidelines, but lawmakers have been unable to reach agreement, leaving the pre-clearance requirement unenforceable.
Jones, the Morehouse professor, said the recent changes would clearly have required federal approval if not for the Shelby decision.
"All of these kinds of exercises ... would have had to be considered by the Department of Justice — or would not have been suggested because it would have been clear that the Department of Justice would have dinged them," she said. "And part of that has to do with the importance of Black voters, particularly in the Democratic Party."
Exacerbating Shelby's impact in Georgia was an explosion in voter registrations. Thanks in part to the state's "motor voter" law that updates records whenever a voter interacts with the Department of Driver Services, the state's voter rolls have swelled by a third since the 2012 presidential election. In two metro Atlanta counties, Gwinnett and Henry, the voting population shifted from majority white to majority nonwhite, contributing to Georgia's transition from red state to purple.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ron Harris/Associated Press Ron Harris/Associated Press
As the number of voters was swelling, county officials across the state began a steady stream of closures of polling locations.
By June 2020, Georgia voters had 331 fewer polling places than in November 2012, a 13% reduction. Because of added pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, metro Atlanta alone had lost 82 voting locations by the time June's primary rolled around. Nearly half of the state's 159 counties had closed at least one polling place since 2012.
Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, and DeKalb County realigned dozens of precincts after some municipalities were annexed or newly established. Other counties cited changes in voter behavior, or tight budgets, but the Georgia Public Broadcasting/ProPublica analysis found only nominal savings.
In Union City, about 20 minutes southwest of Atlanta in Fulton County, the number of active voters has grown about 60% since 2012.
Three polls were open for the June primary, with 9,000 voters assigned to the Christian City Welcome Center. Two additional polling places are being set up for Nov. 3, including one that will reduce the burden on the Welcome Center. Three others, however, will still have more than 5,000 voters each.
In a September county elections board meeting, Fulton officials said the goal had been to add more polling places in 2020 to accommodate population growth. The coronavirus pandemic resulted in closures or relocations, but most sites have been reopened.
Urban Congestion At The Polls
The influx of voters meant that already overburdened polling places got even busier.
Statewide, the number of voters served by the average polling place rose 47%, from 2,046 voters in 2012 to 3,003 as of Oct. 9, according to the analysis. Some rural counties have as many as 22,000 voters assigned to a single polling place.
Forsyth County, one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation, has grown its voter rolls by nearly 60% — or 60,000 voters — in the last eight years. Forsyth, a mostly white county about 45 minutes' drive north of Atlanta, now averages about 8,000 voters per polling place. Officials cut nine of its 25 polling places in 2013 and another after the 2016 election but added back five locations in 2019. No additional sites are expected to be opened for the November election.
Fulton County added nearly a quarter-million voters while consolidating voting locations. When the coronavirus struck, the last-minute unavailability of two polling places forced the assignment of 16,000 people to vote in June at Park Tavern, a restaurant/event space that reported 350 voters in line before the first vote was cast.
Six of Gwinnett County's seven most congested polling places serve predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods. In Lawrenceville, home to one of the largest Black populations in the county, a judge ordered polls at the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources to stay open late during the primary for the nearly 7,000 voters assigned there. It was one of 16 polling locations with missing voting machines on the morning of the primary election.
Angela Maddox, a health care worker, cast her ballot there for the Aug. 11 primary runoff, when only local rather than statewide races were on the ballot. She said she was grateful that equipment was in place and low turnout meant no lines. The reports of voters waiting six hours or more in the primary were "disgusting," she said.
"I know it's a big problem and it seems to continuously happen in Black communities," she said. "That's where you tend to see a lot of the machines breaking down, or fewer machines, or any and everything to not count our vote, which is not fair."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting
Gwinnett County officials obtained federal approval in 2010 — before the Shelby decision — to reduce the number of polls from 163 to 156, citing cost savings and operational efficiency. Since then, the county has kept the same number of polling places while adding more than 175,000 active voters. The average polling place handled 3,649 voters in the June primary and is set for 3,719 for November.
Who's To Blame?
Since the Shelby decision, the Georgia State Election Board, chaired by Raffensperger, has been the primary body for investigating and potentially sanctioning counties found to have violated election laws and procedures.
But the election board has rarely investigated the sort of violations that the U.S. Department of Justice once stepped in to review under the Voting Rights Act.
Since 2010, when Kemp began his eight-year stint as secretary of state, the board has heard hundreds of cases, citing individuals for such violations as wearing political gear to the polls, and rebuking counties for mishandling voter registrations or absentee ballots. But it has taken no action to examine the poll closures that have been approved post-Shelby and has allowed a backlog of dozens of complaints to accumulate. In 2015, Kemp's office sent the letter to county elections officials that included advice on closing polling places.
In September, with Georgia in the national spotlight over its handling of elections, the board cleared a backlog of nearly 100 outstanding cases dating back to 2014 and referred several to the attorney general's office for further review. Among those was Fulton County's alleged mishandling of the June primary. The attorney general's office is still investigating.
In early October, the secretary of state's office told four counties — Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett in the metro Atlanta area and Chatham County in southeast Georgia — that had long lines, absentee ballot problems and late opening or closing polls in the primary to avoid a repeat by providing weekly updates on poll worker training, polling places and line management plans.
Besides the board's actions, the Georgia Senate considered a proposal filed in February and endorsed by Raffensperger. It would have required county elections supervisors to add more equipment or poll workers, or split up any precincts with more than 2,000 voters, if there was a wait longer than an hour measured at three points on Election Day.
More than 1,500 of Georgia's 2,655 precincts have at least 2,000 voters — many of them in urban Democratic counties — and Raffensperger said at the time that voters should never have to wait more than 30 minutes.
But the bill, SB 463, was opposed by Democratic lawmakers and voting rights groups, who argued that any revamping in an election year would cause confusion and create more ways to keep people from casting their ballot.
"Do you have any concerns about trying to change the rules of the game in the middle of an election cycle when we have so much litigation that is currently pending with respect to the state's handling of previous elections?" state Sen. Jen Jordan, a Democrat from Atlanta, asked during the floor debate.
The bill originated in the state Senate, which approved it. The proposal then went to a state House of Representatives committee, where Republicans substituted a version that didn't address the polling place issue and barred the secretary of state and county elections officials from sending absentee ballot applications to voters. Their redesign never reached a floor vote, eliminating any prospect of legislative changes in the 2020 session, which ended in June.
That same month, after the primary election, Raffensperger held a press conference in Fulton County outside Park Tavern, which had processed more voters than 96% of the state's polling places. Flanked by posters highlighting recent election woes, he urged local officials to add poll workers and voting locations while improving technical support and training.
"We know that we need a more diverse pool of voting locations to spread the load of voters that we are anticipating," Raffensperger said.
Nikema Williams, chair of Georgia's Democratic Party, said that while state officials took little or no action to stop widespread voting problems in nonwhite communities, local elections officials are also responsible, since they ultimately decide whether to close or open more voting sites.
"We added counties as a defendant in the [August] lawsuit because we want to make sure that we're getting this right," she said. "And at the end of the day, what matters to us is that voters are not negatively impacted at any level of the electoral process."
Although the judge chided Democratic officials for offering vague remedies and failing to provide sufficient evidence that long lines are likely in November, Phi Nguyen, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said there is plenty of evidence in plain sight.
Nguyen's organization has challenged a number of Georgia election laws in court, including the "exact match" policy that blocks voter registrations that do not exactly match a state or federal database. AAAJA also filed a lawsuit that forced Gwinnett County to change its process for rejecting absentee ballots.
She said the metro Atlanta counties' election administrators have not kept up with the wave of newer, more diverse voters, increasing the chances of disenfranchisement.
Nguyen was a poll monitor at the Infinite Energy Center arena for the primary and did not leave until the final votes were cast, well after polls closed at 7 p.m.
"Georgia made national news because of the breakdown in our election systems," she said. "Long lines are certainly an issue and they happen more often in under-resourced places, which tend to be where communities of color live."
Changes Before Election Day
Some counties in the metro Atlanta area have tried to increase polling locations before the November election.
Just weeks before Nov. 3, Fulton County approved 91 new polling places, focusing on areas where the lines were longest for the June primary. Fourteen polling places — including two of the four polling places in Union City — will still have more than 5,000 voters assigned, but that's a sharp drop from the 60 sites that had more than 5,000 voters assigned for the primary election, said Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barron.
"If you have fewer people assigned to a polling location, you have fewer people that are going to go to that location," he said. "We had some polling places in June where we had 9,000-17,000 voters assigned to these locations, so what this does is it spreads everyone out amongst many more locations."
The more than 16,000 primary voters who were assigned to Park Tavern are now split among five polling places, ranging from fewer than 1,500 voters to nearly 5,500. Park Tavern will remain a polling site, with about 4,300 voters.
But widespread rejiggering of polling locations just weeks before a presidential election comes with its own risks. A 2018 study of North Carolina voters from Stanford University found that relocating polling places decreases turnout, especially for younger voters.
For now, Fulton County officials are hoping for an 80% early voting rate to minimize voter confusion and other problems on Election Day, when the nation's eyes will once again be on Georgia. And they have doubled the election budget to $34 million, purchasing two mobile voting buses as polling sites to alleviate early lines and launching a massive outreach campaign to change voter behavior.
There are more than 30 early voting locations, including a mega-voting site at Atlanta's professional basketball arena equipped with 60 check-in computers and 300 voting machines. On the first day of in-person early voting Monday, Oct. 12, officials recorded the second-highest single-day total in recent years. Statewide, a record 128,000 Georgians braved long lines that first day.
Still, Kathy in Union City is worried that her vote won't be counted.
"When you look at the systemic issues that plague us as a society, oftentimes we're screaming but we're not being heard," she said. "Historically, we have seen that services and resources for Black communities have always been very inadequate, and this is just an extension of that. ... How could there be such a huge disparity?"
This article is part of Electionland, ProPublica's collaborative reporting project covering problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections.


npr--2020-10-18--Coronavirus World Map: Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak

Coronavirus World Map : Tracking The Spread Of The Outbreak On Sept. 28 , the world marked a tragic milestone : 1 million deaths from COVID-19 .
That 's according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University .
And public health experts believe the actual toll – the recorded deaths plus the unrecorded deaths – is much higher .
While the number of cases has slowed in many countries that were hit hard early on by coronavirus , the number of new cases continues to increase .
Since early July , new daily cases averaged over 200,000 worldwide .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January .
At over 8 million cases , the United States leads the world 's COVID-19 crisis .
In late spring and early summer , new COVID-19 cases were largely driven by cases in the Americas .
While the U.S. has consistently had the most new daily cases of coronavirus in the region , Brazil 's new daily cases increased rapidly between May and August .
However , in September , several countries that had previously flattened their curve saw a resurgence in cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , daily case counts have risen swiftly since June , without signs of slowing down .
Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time .
The first chart compares each continent to each other , while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region .
To compare country outbreaks , the chart below graphs trend lines for average new daily cases and deaths against each country 's totals to date .
This type of visualization highlights a state 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overall size of its outbreak .
When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In countries like Israel , which is seeing a second wave of case growth after an initial wave in April , the line forms a V-shape , as the initially bent curve spikes upwards again .
Click here to see the state-by-state breakdown of cases in the United States .
This story was originally published on @ @ @ @ @

Coronavirus world map: We've now passed the 600 million mark for infections
Editor's note: This page is no longer being updated. The last update was Sept. 5, 2022. For current data about COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world, Johns Hopkins University and Our World in Data are useful resources.
In late January 2020 only a few dozen COVID-19 infections had been identified outside of China. A year later, the world tallied its first 100 million cases. It took the globe just 7 more months to pass the 200 million mark— then another 5 months to hit 300 million, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Now the virus has spread to every corner of the globe and has been blamed for more than 6 million deaths.
The United States, India and Brazil in that order have had the most COVID cases and the three nations collectively account for almost half of all recorded infections so far in the pandemic.
Explore the chart below to find a country-by-country breakdown of new and total cases since January 2020.
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Explore how the number of coronavirus cases have shifted in different parts of the world over time. The first chart compares each continent to each other, while the next charts highlight the number of cases in select countries by region.
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This story was originally published on March 30, 2020.


npr--2020-10-18--Coronavirus Maps: How Severe Is Your State's Outbreak?

Coronavirus Maps : How Severe Is Your State 's Outbreak ?
More than 8 million people in the U.S. have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 215,000 have died .
Tens of thousands of new cases are reported daily nationwide .
In the graphics below , explore the trends in your state .
View the data via a heat map ( immediately below ) , curve charts , a table of state-by-state trends over four weeks , or a map of total cases and deaths .
The map above shows the risk of infection in each state based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ These color-coded risk levels were developed by a consortium of researchers and public health experts .
The group advises states in the red category to issue stay-home orders .
Orange states may need to consider stay-home orders , along with increased testing and contact tracing .
Yellow states need to keep up social distancing and mask usage , and both yellow and green states should continue testing and contact tracing .
To compare state outbreaks , the chart above graphs trend lines for average new daily cases and deaths against each state 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visualization highlights a state 's daily growth or decline relative to the overall size of its outbreak .
When both new and total case and death counts grow quickly , the curves bend upward .
As new cases and deaths slow , the curves level or bend down .
In New York , the curve rose sharply before reaching over 170,000 total cases in April .
Since then , new cases have fallen from about 10,000 per day in mid-April to over 1,000 per day in mid October .
Explore the map above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the country for both new confirmed cases and reported deaths from COVID-19 .
New York was the original epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. As of mid October , California , Florida and Texas surpass New York for total cases to date , though New York still has the highest death total .
Click here to see a global map of confirmed cases and deaths .
To show trends , the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state , week over week for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shades of red have growing outbreaks ; those in shades of green , are declining .
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources , including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; the World Health Organization ; national , state and local government health departments ; 1point3acres ; and local media reports .
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies .
This may result in occasional data discrepancies on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anomalies and updates its feeds .
State-by-state recovery data are unavailable at this time .
There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department 's website .
Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships .
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases and or update their methodologies .
For example , in early June , Michigan health authorities started including probable cases in its totals .
This resulted in a brief spike in the state 's daily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reconcile the historical data .
On June 25 , New Jersey included 1,854 previously-unreported probable deaths in its totals , resulting in a spike in the state 's daily death numbers .
On Sept. 2 , Massachusetts changed its methodology for counting probable cases , which lowered its overall case and death numbers .
The JHU team maintains a list of such changes .
This story was originally published on March 16 , 2020 .
Elena Renken was a co-author on that version .
Sean McMinn contributed to and Carmel Wroth edited @ @ @

Tracking the coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing
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Note: This page was last updated on Feb. 1, 2023. It will no longer be updated. For current data on COVID cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Feb. 1, there have been more than 101 million confirmed coronavirus infections in the U.S. and more than 1 million people have died of COVID-19. In the graphics below, explore the trends in your state.
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The above charts show average new cases per 100,000 people for each state over the last 12 months.
Note: Actual cases may be substantially higher, since many who test positive with at-home tests don't report their cases.
For additional data about COVID-19 in the U.S, including cases and deaths, demographics, and hospitalizations, consult the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
To show trends, the table below shows the change in average new cases per day in each state, week over week for the last 28 days. States marked in shades of red have growing outbreaks; those in shades of green, are declining.
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Methodology
The graphics on this page pull from data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University from several sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the World Health Organization; national, state and local government health departments; 1point3acres; and local media reports.
The JHU team automates its data uploads and regularly checks them for anomalies. This may result in occasional data discrepancies on this page as the JHU team resolves anomalies and updates its feeds. There may be discrepancies between what you see here and what you see on your local health department's website. Figures shown do not include cases on cruise ships.
Fluctuations in the numbers may happen as health authorities review old cases, process testing backlogs or update their methodologies. The JHU team maintains a list of such changes.
This story was originally published on March 16, 2020. Elena Renken was a co-author on that version. Sean McMinn and Audrey Carlsen contributed to this story. Carmel Wroth edited this story.