vox--2020-09-22--Everything you need to know about voting in 2020 (but were afraid to ask)

Everything you need to know about voting in 2020 ( but were afraid to ask ) Share All sharing options for : Everything you need to know about voting in 2020 ( but were afraid to ask ) Lettie Fickling , of Colorado , has always voted by mail , a process she says she enjoys .
But with this year ’ s election , she ’ s not so sure .
She ’ s concerned that recent issues with the postal service could prevent her ballot from getting in on time .
She also has fears about voting in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She ’ s still not sure how she ’ ll vote .
“ I ’ m having all these worries despite living in a state with some of the best voter protections , best mail-in voting infrastructure , and highest voter turnout , ” Fickling told Recode .
“ I can ’ t even imagine how worried people must be in places like Texas.
” Because of the pandemic , more Americans than ever are facing the same decision as Fickling this year .
With expanded access to mail-in voting , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more people will vote by mail than have in previous elections .
At the same time , the United States Postal Service , upon which much of the mail-in voting process depends , has instituted cost-cutting measures that have delayed and disrupted mail deliveries .
In-person voting may be more difficult this year , too ; the pandemic has limited the locations that can be used as polling centers as well as the number of people willing to work in them — not to mention the number of people willing to use them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system that already had its problems .
“ Coronavirus has laid bare all the cracks in our election system and really put strain and stress on a system that ’ s not resourced well enough to handle a lot of strain or stress , ” said Myrna Pérez , the director of Brennan Center for Justice ’ s Voting Rights and Elections Program .
The best thing that you , the voter , can do now is make a plan for how you ’ re going to vote and be as prepared as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as early as you can , and take all of your options into account before deciding which is best for you .
To help you know what those options are , we ’ re answering some frequently asked questions about registering to vote , mail-in voting , and voting in person .
One thing to note : Voting rules differ state by state , and there can even be variances within individual states .
So make sure you know what ’ s allowed and available where you live .
Your options for voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they may even change between now and Election Day , so look for the most up-to-date and reliable resources .
We ’ ve provided links to some of those here : So ... what should I do first ?
Before you can vote , you have to register ( unless you live in North Dakota ) .
New voter registrations are down significantly due to the coronavirus , which has closed DMV offices that usually account for the vast majority of voter registrations and canceled in-person voter registration events .
“ We ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to voter registration this year , ” Jeanette Senecal , senior director of Mission Impact for the League of Women Voters , told Recode .
Most states let you register online , so you can do it quickly and easily without having to leave your house .
Register as soon as possible because some states have deadlines in early October .
And it ’ s a good idea to make a plan to vote early , if you have already made up your mind .
I ’ m already registered , so this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right ?
Even if you think you ’ re registered , there ’ s a chance you ’ ve been purged from voter rolls .
So you ’ ll want to double-check to make sure — especially if your state has an early registration deadline .
Nearly every state has a way to check your registration status online , or you can call your local election official .
“ I check my registration status about a month before Election Day , a week before Election Day , and I check it the day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ If something happened , you want to know about it before you go into the polling place.
” Make sure your local board of elections has your current address .
If you ’ ve recently moved to another state , you will need to register in that state .
And if you ’ ve moved so recently that you don ’ t yet have identifying documents with your new address ( or if you don ’ t have an address at all ) , you ’ ll probably need to check @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out how you can still register .
Every state has to let you vote if you don ’ t have an address , but some make it much harder to do this than others .
I ’ m hearing a lot about mail-in voting this year .
Can I do that ?
Probably , but it depends where you live .
While all states have some form of mail-in voting , only a few of them primarily conduct their elections this way .
In most states , you ’ ll have to request @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Make sure you request this ballot with plenty of time for your board of elections to mail it to you and for you to return it .
With the post office delays , this might be more time than you ’ d usually expect , so make sure you ’ re keeping up with your locality ’ s deadlines and building in enough time .
This year , many states have expanded access to mail-in voting due to the pandemic .
For instance , some are not making voters state a reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allowing them to use the coronavirus as cause to request an absentee ballot .
But some states have not done this , and if you live in one of those , you can only vote by mail if you meet certain eligibility requirements .
It ’ s important to know what your locality ’ s rules are before you even request a mail-in ballot because doing so may mean you can ’ t vote in person at all , even if you don ’ t send your mail-in ballot back .
Or you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the polling location with you to be voided before you can vote in-person .
Be aware that some states are still in the process of expanding access or have pending litigation to limit access to mail-in voting , so things could change .
Make sure you ’ re consulting the most current sources of information .
Okay , I got my mail-in ballot .
What next ?
If you ’ ve never voted by mail before , it ’ s especially important that you familiarize yourself with a process you ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may be rules you have to follow that you didn ’ t anticipate , like which writing utensil to use , or that you may have to sign the ballot envelope .
Follow instructions to the letter — not only for the ballot itself but also for the envelope you have to return it in .
“ People get hung up because they didn ’ t realize that the envelope that the ballot came in is the one that you have to return to them , ” Pérez said .
“ A lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kentucky , for example , requires signatures on multiple envelopes : If you ’ re in a household with multiple voters with their own ballots , be careful to keep them ( and the envelopes ) separate from each other to avoid mix-ups that will invalidate everyone ’ s vote .
“ People might think that to save money they can return multiple ballots in the same envelope , but in fact you need to return them individually , ” Senecal said .
Hundreds of thousands of ballots are rejected due to simple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t want yours to be one of them .
Do I have to return my mail-in ballot by mail ?
Most states require that you receive your ballot in the mail , but you don ’ t have to return it that way .
Every state allows you to hand-deliver it to your local board of elections , and some states have drop boxes specifically for ballots .
Some states will let you drop your vote off at polling locations during early or normal voting hours , and some states will allow you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballot if you can ’ t .
Again , look up your state ’ s rules to see what you ’ re allowed to do .
How do I know if my mail-in ballot has been received ?
Most states have a way to track your ballot , which should give mail-in voters added peace of mind .
Unfortunately , not all of them offer this .
( You should check your state ’ s election website to learn more details — here ’ s a handy list of links . )
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chance to verify your vote if there ’ s an issue , such as a non-matching signature .
Some , however , will just throw out your vote without giving you a chance to verify it .
You may never even know it was rejected .
If you live in one of those states and you ’ re not comfortable with that uncertainty , mail-in voting might not be your thing .
Jared Christensen , of Utah , told Recode that his mail-in ballot was rejected in 2016 because , like thousands of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ match what the local election officials had on file for him .
He was given an opportunity to verify it , but he ’ s voted in person ever since .
This year , however , he might go back to mail-in voting .
“ I would prefer to vote with mail-in , especially if [ coronavirus ] cases spike again with school starting up , ” Christensen said .
I keep hearing that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud .
Is that true ?
It ’ s certainly understandable that some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a process that many people haven ’ t used before , know little about , and that some states have rushed into doing on a large scale for the first time .
However , there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are any more prone to fraud than in-person votes , and the states that already do largely by-mail elections have not reported more incidents of fraud than the states that don ’ t .
As we ’ ve detailed above , states have very strict rules about how to receive , fill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are designed to prevent fraud , among other checks and balances .
Even the loudest voice trumpeting unproven claims that mail-in ballots are major sources of fraud , President Trump , mails in his own ballot .
He has even started encouraging his followers to do so as well .
Mail-in voting isn ’ t for me .
What about just voting in person ?
For those who can ’ t or don ’ t want to vote by mail , there ’ s always the option to vote in person .
Many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person early , which could reduce potential waiting time if you ’ re nervous about being in line with a lot of people .
Check with your state or local board of elections to make sure you know where , when , and how to vote early .
Even if you ’ ve voted in person before , things will probably be a little different this time around .
For instance , your usual voting location might have changed .
So check as close as possible to the election to make sure you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that you have transportation to get there , and know what you might need to bring with you to be able to vote — some states , for instance , require you to have a form of ID .
But I ’ m afraid that voting in person will expose me to the coronavirus .
That ’ s a valid concern , and checking with your local officials to find out what safety precautions your polling place is taking for Covid-19 will hopefully give you some guidance .
Some things you might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poll workers masked ?
Are the voters required to wear masks and social distance ?
Will hand sanitizer be available ?
Will surfaces be frequently disinfected ?
Depending on the answers to those questions , you may feel better about in-person voting , or you may decide that mail-in is a better option for you .
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Brennan Center for Justice have come out with guides on best practices for safe in-person voting , and they ’ re a good place to start to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting in person this year should be considered fairly safe .
Senecal says she ’ s heard good things about how polling locations are preparing for safe in-person votes , but she encourages people to bring their own supplies if they ’ re concerned the polling place won ’ t have enough , like a personal bottle of hand sanitizer .
If possible , vote during the less-busy times ( mid-morning and mid-afternoon ) to reduce how much time you ’ ll have to spend in line and how crowded your polling location @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twice , like President Trump told me to do ?
Voting twice is illegal , but some states do let you cast a mail-in ballot and vote in person ; your in-person vote will count and the vote by mail will be discarded .
But some states won ’ t let you do this .
Check with your local official to find out what the rules are in your state .
What you shouldn ’ t do is use an in-person vote to “ make sure ” your mail-in ballot was counted , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to longer lines and wait times as well as increase the risk of spreading the coronavirus .
It ’ s also unnecessary when many states let you track your mail-in ballot from the comfort of your own home .
If you ’ re truly concerned that your mail-in vote wasn ’ t received and want to vote in-person , fill out a provisional ballot at the polling location .
That will be counted if your mail-in ballot , for whatever reason , isn ’ t received .
I heard there ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help .
What can I do ?
Fear of in-person voting has not only caused the rise of mail-in voting but has also led to an anticipated shortage of poll workers and the number of polling locations , either because the usual locations don ’ t want to host crowds this year or they can ’ t get the staff to run them .
“ There ’ s going to be a shortage of resources , there ’ s going to be a problem with poll workers , ” Pérez said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and lots of people are working super hard to try and fill the poll worker gap.
” If it ’ s an option for you , consider becoming a poll worker on Election Day .
There are several recruiting initiatives out there , or you can contact your local election officials to sign up .
This is getting too complicated for me .
Should I just skip voting this year ?
No !
In fact , it ’ s more important than ever that you vote .
There are bound to be some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as there are every year .
All the new rules and changes will likely add to the confusion .
Your ballot might take longer to arrive in the mail , you might have to wait longer than usual at the polling location , poll workers might not be as speedy or well-versed in voting rules as you ’ d hope .
If you think that your right to vote is being infringed on , you can call your local elections official , or your state might have an election protection hotline , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Union ’ s 1-866-OUR-VOTE .
“ The reality is , this is going to be an election unlike one that we have lived through , ” Pérez said .
“ I think it ’ s going to be critically important that voters be very strong advocates for their right to vote , but also understand that we ’ re in this together and be patient and constructive.
” When will we know who won ?
Experts stress that Americans should be prepared not to have the night-of results we ’ ve become accustomed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the process .
Some states accept ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day , which means they may not receive some votes until after that day has passed .
It will take time to process and count all the votes , and some states can ’ t even start doing that until the in-person polls close .
“ This is the process working , ” Senecal said .
“ The officials are taking the time to ensure that every vote in their communities is counted .
This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually the process that happens every single cycle .
The official vote count and the official results have never been available on Election Day.
” So whoever is leading when you go to bed on November 3 may well not be the winner , simply because relatively few ballots have been counted at that point .
That ’ s especially important to keep in mind now that the president is suggesting that such a scenario means that the election was somehow “ rigged.
” “ I can imagine a lot of extraordinarily good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not know on Election Day , ” Pérez said .
“ I don ’ t think voters understand that there ’ s that side of it.
” At some point , of course , we will have the final election results .
We ’ ll also know if the current election system is built to handle national crises that make it harder to vote in person .
If nothing else , we ’ ll know what we need to do to ensure easier , free , and fair elections next time — pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials will act on that .
“ The thing that I ’ m most worried about is that , as a country , we ’ re not going to learn from this experience , ” Pérez said .
“ In the best of circumstances , on the best day , we under-fund and under-resource our elections .
We do not build in enough resiliency into our systems .
And our right to vote is not only fundamental , it is the way we resolve political differences peacefully in this country .
“ Our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need to be built to withstand whatever crisis of the moment gets thrown at us.
” Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists .
Will you help keep Vox free for all ?
The United States is in the middle of one of the most consequential presidential elections of our lifetimes .
It ’ s essential that all Americans are able to access clear , concise information on what the outcome of the election could mean for their lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and communities .
That is our mission at Vox .
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Everything you need to know about voting in 2020 (but were afraid to ask)
Share All sharing options for: Everything you need to know about voting in 2020 (but were afraid to ask)
Editor’s note, October 28: The USPS strongly recommends sending back your ballot by mail at least one week before Election Day. If you haven’t mailed yours yet, see our guide to other options for returning your ballot.
Lettie Fickling, of Colorado, has always voted by mail, a process she says she enjoys. But with this year’s election, she’s not so sure. She’s concerned that recent issues with the postal service could prevent her ballot from getting in on time. She also has fears about voting in person and potentially being exposed to Covid-19. She’s still not sure how she’ll vote.
“I’m having all these worries despite living in a state with some of the best voter protections, best mail-in voting infrastructure, and highest voter turnout,” Fickling told Recode. “I can’t even imagine how worried people must be in places like Texas.”
Because of the pandemic, more Americans than ever are facing the same decision as Fickling this year. With expanded access to mail-in voting, it’s expected that tens of millions more people will vote by mail than have in previous elections.
At the same time, the United States Postal Service, upon which much of the mail-in voting process depends, has instituted cost-cutting measures that have delayed and disrupted mail deliveries. In-person voting may be more difficult this year, too; the pandemic has limited the locations that can be used as polling centers as well as the number of people willing to work in them — not to mention the number of people willing to use them. All this, heaped on a system that already had its problems.
“Coronavirus has laid bare all the cracks in our election system and really put strain and stress on a system that’s not resourced well enough to handle a lot of strain or stress,” said Myrna Pérez, the director of Brennan Center for Justice’s Voting Rights and Elections Program.
The best thing that you, the voter, can do now is make a plan for how you’re going to vote and be as prepared as possible to do it. Do this as early as you can, and take all of your options into account before deciding which is best for you. To help you know what those options are, we’re answering some frequently asked questions about registering to vote, mail-in voting, and voting in person.
One thing to note: Voting rules differ state by state, and there can even be variances within individual states. So make sure you know what’s allowed and available where you live. Your options for voting may be different this year, and they may even change between now and Election Day, so look for the most up-to-date and reliable resources. We’ve provided links to some of those here:
So ... what should I do first?
Before you can vote, you have to register (unless you live in North Dakota). New voter registrations are down significantly due to the coronavirus, which has closed DMV offices that usually account for the vast majority of voter registrations and canceled in-person voter registration events.
“We’re really behind in our numbers related to voter registration this year,” Jeanette Senecal, senior director of Mission Impact for the League of Women Voters, told Recode.
Most states let you register online, so you can do it quickly and easily without having to leave your house. Register as soon as possible because some states have deadlines in early October. And it’s a good idea to make a plan to vote early, if you have already made up your mind.
I’m already registered, so this doesn’t apply to me, right?
Even if you think you’re registered, there’s a chance you’ve been purged from voter rolls. So you’ll want to double-check to make sure — especially if your state has an early registration deadline. Nearly every state has a way to check your registration status online, or you can call your local election official.
“I check my registration status about a month before Election Day, a week before Election Day, and I check it the day before Election Day,” Pérez said. “If something happened, you want to know about it before you go into the polling place.”
Make sure your local board of elections has your current address. If you’ve recently moved to another state, you will need to register in that state. And if you’ve moved so recently that you don’t yet have identifying documents with your new address (or if you don’t have an address at all), you’ll probably need to check with your local election official to find out how you can still register. Every state has to let you vote if you don’t have an address, but some make it much harder to do this than others.
I’m hearing a lot about mail-in voting this year. Can I do that?
Probably, but it depends where you live. While all states have some form of mail-in voting, only a few of them primarily conduct their elections this way. In most states, you’ll have to request a mail-in, or absentee, ballot. Make sure you request this ballot with plenty of time for your board of elections to mail it to you and for you to return it. With the post office delays, this might be more time than you’d usually expect, so make sure you’re keeping up with your locality’s deadlines and building in enough time.
This year, many states have expanded access to mail-in voting due to the pandemic. For instance, some are not making voters state a reason for voting absentee, while others are allowing them to use the coronavirus as cause to request an absentee ballot. But some states have not done this, and if you live in one of those, you can only vote by mail if you meet certain eligibility requirements.
It’s important to know what your locality’s rules are before you even request a mail-in ballot because doing so may mean you can’t vote in person at all, even if you don’t send your mail-in ballot back. Or you may have to bring the mail-in ballot to the polling location with you to be voided before you can vote in-person.
Be aware that some states are still in the process of expanding access or have pending litigation to limit access to mail-in voting, so things could change. Make sure you’re consulting the most current sources of information.
Okay, I got my mail-in ballot. What next?
If you’ve never voted by mail before, it’s especially important that you familiarize yourself with a process you’re encountering for the first time; there may be rules you have to follow that you didn’t anticipate, like which writing utensil to use, or that you may have to sign the ballot envelope. Follow instructions to the letter — not only for the ballot itself but also for the envelope you have to return it in.
“People get hung up because they didn’t realize that the envelope that the ballot came in is the one that you have to return to them,” Pérez said. “A lot of people forget to sign it.”
Kentucky, for example, requires signatures on multiple envelopes:
If you’re in a household with multiple voters with their own ballots, be careful to keep them (and the envelopes) separate from each other to avoid mix-ups that will invalidate everyone’s vote.
“People might think that to save money they can return multiple ballots in the same envelope, but in fact you need to return them individually,” Senecal said.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots are rejected due to simple mistakes every year. You don’t want yours to be one of them.
Do I have to return my mail-in ballot by mail?
Most states require that you receive your ballot in the mail, but you don’t have to return it that way. Every state allows you to hand-deliver it to your local board of elections, and some states have drop boxes specifically for ballots. Some states will let you drop your vote off at polling locations during early or normal voting hours, and some states will allow you to designate someone else to return your ballot if you can’t. Again, look up your state’s rules to see what you’re allowed to do.
How do I know if my mail-in ballot has been received?
Most states have a way to track your ballot, which should give mail-in voters added peace of mind. Unfortunately, not all of them offer this. (You should check your state’s election website to learn more details — here’s a handy list of links.) And some states will even give you a chance to verify your vote if there’s an issue, such as a non-matching signature. Some, however, will just throw out your vote without giving you a chance to verify it. You may never even know it was rejected.
If you live in one of those states and you’re not comfortable with that uncertainty, mail-in voting might not be your thing. Jared Christensen, of Utah, told Recode that his mail-in ballot was rejected in 2016 because, like thousands of others, his signature didn’t match what the local election officials had on file for him. He was given an opportunity to verify it, but he’s voted in person ever since. This year, however, he might go back to mail-in voting.
“I would prefer to vote with mail-in, especially if [coronavirus] cases spike again with school starting up,” Christensen said.
I keep hearing that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud. Is that true?
It’s certainly understandable that some people have concerns about mail-in voting, a process that many people haven’t used before, know little about, and that some states have rushed into doing on a large scale for the first time. However, there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are any more prone to fraud than in-person votes, and the states that already do largely by-mail elections have not reported more incidents of fraud than the states that don’t. As we’ve detailed above, states have very strict rules about how to receive, fill out, and return mail-in ballots that are designed to prevent fraud, among other checks and balances.
Even the loudest voice trumpeting unproven claims that mail-in ballots are major sources of fraud, President Trump, mails in his own ballot. He has even started encouraging his followers to do so as well.
Mail-in voting isn’t for me. What about just voting in person?
For those who can’t or don’t want to vote by mail, there’s always the option to vote in person. Many states will even let you vote in person early, which could reduce potential waiting time if you’re nervous about being in line with a lot of people. Check with your state or local board of elections to make sure you know where, when, and how to vote early.
Even if you’ve voted in person before, things will probably be a little different this time around. For instance, your usual voting location might have changed. So check as close as possible to the election to make sure you’re going to the right place, that you have transportation to get there, and know what you might need to bring with you to be able to vote — some states, for instance, require you to have a form of ID.
But I’m afraid that voting in person will expose me to the coronavirus.
That’s a valid concern, and checking with your local officials to find out what safety precautions your polling place is taking for Covid-19 will hopefully give you some guidance. Some things you might want to ask about: Are the poll workers masked? Are the voters required to wear masks and social distance? Will hand sanitizer be available? Will surfaces be frequently disinfected? Depending on the answers to those questions, you may feel better about in-person voting, or you may decide that mail-in is a better option for you. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Brennan Center for Justice have come out with guides on best practices for safe in-person voting, and they’re a good place to start to find out more.
Some experts believe voting in person this year should be considered fairly safe. Senecal says she’s heard good things about how polling locations are preparing for safe in-person votes, but she encourages people to bring their own supplies if they’re concerned the polling place won’t have enough, like a personal bottle of hand sanitizer. If possible, vote during the less-busy times (mid-morning and mid-afternoon) to reduce how much time you’ll have to spend in line and how crowded your polling location will be.
Can I just vote twice, like President Trump told me to do?
Voting twice is illegal, but some states do let you cast a mail-in ballot and vote in person; your in-person vote will count and the vote by mail will be discarded. But some states won’t let you do this. Check with your local official to find out what the rules are in your state.
What you shouldn’t do is use an in-person vote to “make sure” your mail-in ballot was counted, as Trump suggested. That will lead to longer lines and wait times as well as increase the risk of spreading the coronavirus. It’s also unnecessary when many states let you track your mail-in ballot from the comfort of your own home. If you’re truly concerned that your mail-in vote wasn’t received and want to vote in-person, fill out a provisional ballot at the polling location. That will be counted if your mail-in ballot, for whatever reason, isn’t received.
I heard there’s a shortage of poll workers and I want to help. What can I do?
Fear of in-person voting has not only caused the rise of mail-in voting but has also led to an anticipated shortage of poll workers and the number of polling locations, either because the usual locations don’t want to host crowds this year or they can’t get the staff to run them.
“There’s going to be a shortage of resources, there’s going to be a problem with poll workers,” Pérez said. “I can tell you that lots and lots of people are working super hard to try and fill the poll worker gap.”
If it’s an option for you, consider becoming a poll worker on Election Day. There are several recruiting initiatives out there, or you can contact your local election officials to sign up.
This is getting too complicated for me. Should I just skip voting this year?
No! In fact, it’s more important than ever that you vote.
There are bound to be some glitches or snafus on Election Day, as there are every year. All the new rules and changes will likely add to the confusion. Your ballot might take longer to arrive in the mail, you might have to wait longer than usual at the polling location, poll workers might not be as speedy or well-versed in voting rules as you’d hope. If you think that your right to vote is being infringed on, you can call your local elections official, or your state might have an election protection hotline, or you can call the American Civil Liberties Union’s 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
“The reality is, this is going to be an election unlike one that we have lived through,” Pérez said. “I think it’s going to be critically important that voters be very strong advocates for their right to vote, but also understand that we’re in this together and be patient and constructive.”
When will we know who won?
Experts stress that Americans should be prepared not to have the night-of results we’ve become accustomed to and that this is a normal part of the process. Some states accept ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, which means they may not receive some votes until after that day has passed. It will take time to process and count all the votes, and some states can’t even start doing that until the in-person polls close.
“This is the process working,” Senecal said. “The officials are taking the time to ensure that every vote in their communities is counted. This is not an unusual process. This is actually the process that happens every single cycle. The official vote count and the official results have never been available on Election Day.”
So whoever is leading when you go to bed on November 3 may well not be the winner, simply because relatively few ballots have been counted at that point. That’s especially important to keep in mind now that the president is suggesting that such a scenario means that the election was somehow “rigged.”
“I can imagine a lot of extraordinarily good and very compelling reasons why we might not know on Election Day,” Pérez said. “I don’t think voters understand that there’s that side of it.”
At some point, of course, we will have the final election results. We’ll also know if the current election system is built to handle national crises that make it harder to vote in person. If nothing else, we’ll know what we need to do to ensure easier, free, and fair elections next time — pandemic or not. Hopefully, our elected officials will act on that.
“The thing that I’m most worried about is that, as a country, we’re not going to learn from this experience,” Pérez said. “In the best of circumstances, on the best day, we under-fund and under-resource our elections. We do not build in enough resiliency into our systems. And our right to vote is not only fundamental, it is the way we resolve political differences peacefully in this country.
“Our elections are so important, but they need to be built to withstand whatever crisis of the moment gets thrown at us.”
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


vox--2020-09-22--The hell that is remote learning, explained in a comic

I ’ m a freelance writer and illustrator living in the Bay Area with my 7-year-old and 5-year-old .
On August 17 , the kids started school , which is 100 percent remote , at least until January but likely longer depending on how the pandemic develops this winter .
Here ’ s what one week of attempting online school looks like .
Aubrey Hirsch is a writer and illustrator in Berkeley , California .
Her work has appeared in the Nib , the New York Times , the Rumpus , and elsewhere .
Help keep Vox free for all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
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But our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
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vox--2020-09-22--Trump wants the Supreme Court to let him weaponize the census against immigrants

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to review its policy excluding unauthorized immigrants living in the US from census population counts for the purposes of redrawing congressional districts in 2021 — a transparent attack on their political power that was struck down by a New York federal court earlier this month .
Most states currently draw congressional districts , determining the areas that each elected official represents based on total population , including unauthorized immigrants .
Current maps are due to be redrawn across the country in 2021 after the results of the 2020 census come in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Each redistricting has a lasting influence on who is likely to win elections , which communities will be represented in Congress , and , ultimately , what laws will be passed .
President Donald Trump ’ s attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants would reduce the counts in areas where foreign-born populations have traditionally settled — primarily Democrat-run cities — and therefore undermine their political power relative to more rural , Republican-run areas .
But it could also impact red states with large immigrant populations , including Texas .
The administration argued Tuesday that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ final say over who must be counted in the census .
It also asked the justices to expedite the case such that they would hear oral arguments in December and issue a decision prior to December 31 , the federal deadline for sending the population counts to Congress for purposes of redistricting .
( The current deadline to respond to the census is September 30 , though an ongoing lawsuit demands the Trump administration push back that deadline on account of the pandemic . )
Whoever Trump nominates to succeed the late Justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote in the case .
Trump has indicated that he will announce his nominee as early as Saturday , and they will likely have the votes to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate by year ’ s end in spite of the upcoming election .
In a written statement issued after he signed the memorandum in July , Trump said that allowing unauthorized immigrants to be counted would undermine American representative democracy and create “ perverse incentives ” for those seeking to come to the US .
“ There used to be a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ I am a citizen of the United States , ’ ” Trump said in the statement .
“ But now , the radical left is trying to erase the existence of this concept and conceal the number of illegal aliens in our country .
This is all part of a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of Americans citizens , and I will not stand for it.
” But on September 10 , a panel of three federal judges found that Trump ’ s memorandum skirted the federal government ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no matter their immigration status , in the census every 10 years .
Trump has tried to politicize the census before This wasn ’ t the first time that Trump has used the census to target immigrants .
In June 2019 , Trump lost his bid to put a question about citizenship status on the 2020 census at the Supreme Court .
Several states , including California and New York , said the question would depress response rates among immigrant communities and cost their governments critical federal funding .
Trump , on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data would aid the Department of Justice ’ s enforcement of the prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting .
But that rationale was just a pretext , introduced after the fact to justify the question and meant to obscure the administration ’ s actual reasoning , the justices found .
Had the administration decided to continue pursuing the citizenship question , it would have had to race to support its decision with more valid reasoning in order to print the census forms on time .
Trump ultimately decided against doing so , instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that instructed the US Census Bureau to estimate citizenship data using enhanced state administrative records .
Trump suggested at the time that the data could be used to draw electoral districts in 2021 based on where eligible voters live , as legislators in Texas , Arizona , Missouri , and Nebraska had already sought .
Trump has facilitated the creation of that data , though it ’ s not clear just how accurate it is .
The executive order authorized the Census Bureau to collect more data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and US Citizenship and Immigration Services in an attempt to identify the citizenship status of more people .
The bureau later started asking states to voluntarily turn over driver ’ s license records , which typically include citizenship data , to determine the citizenship status of the US population .
The White House memorandum represents the culmination of those efforts , which immigrant advocates saw as a blatant attempt to strip resources and political power from brown and Black communities .
Beyond its impact on apportionment and redistricting , they had feared the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet to respond to the census from doing so .
It could have also hurt communities with large immigrant populations , as federal funding is usually determined by census counts .
Every day at Vox , we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you , and our audience around the world , with information that has the power to save lives .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
Vox ’ s work is reaching more people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn .
Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation , but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles , videos , and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires .
Please consider making a contribution to Vox today .

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to review its policy excluding unauthorized immigrants living in the US from census population counts for the purposes of redrawing congressional districts in 2021 — a transparent attack on their political power that was struck down by a New York federal court earlier this month.
Most states currently draw congressional districts, determining the areas that each elected official represents based on total population, including unauthorized immigrants. Current maps are due to be redrawn across the country in 2021 after the results of the 2020 census come in, and the stakes are high: Each redistricting has a lasting influence on who is likely to win elections, which communities will be represented in Congress, and, ultimately, what laws will be passed.
President Donald Trump’s attempt to exclude unauthorized immigrants would reduce the counts in areas where foreign-born populations have traditionally settled — primarily Democrat-run cities — and therefore undermine their political power relative to more rural, Republican-run areas. But it could also impact red states with large immigrant populations, including Texas.
The administration argued Tuesday that by law, the president has the final say over who must be counted in the census.
It also asked the justices to expedite the case such that they would hear oral arguments in December and issue a decision prior to December 31, the federal deadline for sending the population counts to Congress for purposes of redistricting. (The current deadline to respond to the census is September 30, though an ongoing lawsuit demands the Trump administration push back that deadline on account of the pandemic.)
Whoever Trump nominates to succeed the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could cast a deciding vote in the case. Trump has indicated that he will announce his nominee as early as Saturday, and they will likely have the votes to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate by year’s end in spite of the upcoming election.
In a written statement issued after he signed the memorandum in July, Trump said that allowing unauthorized immigrants to be counted would undermine American representative democracy and create “perverse incentives” for those seeking to come to the US.
“There used to be a time when you could proudly declare, ‘I am a citizen of the United States,’” Trump said in the statement. “But now, the radical left is trying to erase the existence of this concept and conceal the number of illegal aliens in our country. This is all part of a broader left-wing effort to erode the rights of Americans citizens, and I will not stand for it.”
But on September 10, a panel of three federal judges found that Trump’s memorandum skirted the federal government’s constitutional obligation to count every person, no matter their immigration status, in the census every 10 years.
Trump has tried to politicize the census before
This wasn’t the first time that Trump has used the census to target immigrants. In June 2019, Trump lost his bid to put a question about citizenship status on the 2020 census at the Supreme Court. Several states, including California and New York, said the question would depress response rates among immigrant communities and cost their governments critical federal funding.
Trump, on the other hand, had argued that citizenship data would aid the Department of Justice’s enforcement of the prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting. But that rationale was just a pretext, introduced after the fact to justify the question and meant to obscure the administration’s actual reasoning, the justices found.
Had the administration decided to continue pursuing the citizenship question, it would have had to race to support its decision with more valid reasoning in order to print the census forms on time.
Trump ultimately decided against doing so, instead issuing an executive order in July 2019 that instructed the US Census Bureau to estimate citizenship data using enhanced state administrative records. Trump suggested at the time that the data could be used to draw electoral districts in 2021 based on where eligible voters live, as legislators in Texas, Arizona, Missouri, and Nebraska had already sought.
Trump has facilitated the creation of that data, though it’s not clear just how accurate it is. The executive order authorized the Census Bureau to collect more data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection, and US Citizenship and Immigration Services in an attempt to identify the citizenship status of more people. The bureau later started asking states to voluntarily turn over driver’s license records, which typically include citizenship data, to determine the citizenship status of the US population.
The White House memorandum represents the culmination of those efforts, which immigrant advocates saw as a blatant attempt to strip resources and political power from brown and Black communities. Beyond its impact on apportionment and redistricting, they had feared the memorandum would indirectly discourage immigrants who had yet to respond to the census from doing so. It could have also hurt communities with large immigrant populations, as federal funding is usually determined by census counts.


vox--2020-09-22--Inside the Biden campaign’s surprising influencer strategy

In 2016 , when traditional American campaign activities like door-to-door canvassing and celebrity-studded get-out-the-vote concerts were centerpieces of presidential campaigns , a viral post of support from a social media star would have been a nice little bonus for candidates .
Four years later , amid an ongoing pandemic that ’ s made in-person campaigning a public health hazard , much of the electoral battleground has moved to the internet — and getting a boost from influencers on Instagram , TikTok , or YouTube is an increasingly important campaign tactic , particularly for Democrats .
That ’ s because Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ digital disadvantage compared to the Trump campaign , which is bolstered by networks of influential conservative personalities who stand ready to amplify its messaging — misinformation and all .
That ’ s in addition to the incumbent president ’ s own massive online audience : Trump has more than 30 million followers on Facebook and 85 million on Twitter , while Biden has just under 3 million on Facebook and just over 9 million on Twitter .
“ We are forced to do everything virtual , ” Adrienne Elrod , the director of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told Recode .
“ We ’ re forced to do more [ Instagram ] Lives .
We ’ re forced to do more Twitter conversations .
We ’ re forced to go to Occupy Democrats.
” With limited time until the election , Biden ’ s campaign and the organizations and PACs that support him are looking to find new audiences anywhere they can .
That ’ s where online influencers come in .
But this isn ’ t just about trotting out pro-Biden content from A-list celebrity accounts with tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the best support , Biden campaign strategists told Recode , might come from influencers who speak to comparatively smaller but targeted audiences , like persuadable voters from a particular community or people living in a specific swing state .
So even if Biden is doing an Instagram Live chat with an influencer you ’ ve personally never heard of , it ’ s likely that influencer is speaking with an audience that could be uniquely useful to his campaign .
“ We ’ re bringing their fan base into the campaign , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really allowing us to be more specific and more targeted in our approach and in our reach.
” Biden ’ s influencer strategy means finding audiences where they are Biden , whose team has even hired a firm to assist with influencer outreach , has developed a formula for working with these influencers : He sits at home , often in front of a plant-filled backdrop and a window , while the influencer asks him open-ended questions that allow Biden to talk off the cuff about any given topic .
These interviews are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they also pop up on Facebook and YouTube .
While they are not quite advertisements or endorsement videos , they ’ re not journalism , either .
The goal appears to be as simple as engaging with influencers , people who have credibility with particular audiences , and getting those influencers ’ audiences thinking about Biden .
Prompts like “ what your administration plans on doing to support working families in regards to child care ” allow Biden to stick to bread-and-butter anecdotes and talking points , as well as connect with audiences @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discussion have included Biden 's approach to leadership , and his plans for police reform and combating systematic racism .
For instance , to boost the child care components of his “ Build Back Better ” campaign , Biden chatted on Facebook Live and YouTube with two parenting influencers who are popular with moms and online parenting communities : Elle Walker , a YouTuber with a 3 million-subscriber-strong channel called WhatsUpMoms , and Dulce Candy , who is a veteran and beauty vlogger with over 2 million subscribers on YouTube ( she also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
Neither woman was compensated .
“ Biden was extremely well-suited to speak to them , not only because of his policy rollout but because he understood what it was like to be a single parent himself , ” Christian Tom , the head of digital partnerships for Biden ’ s campaign , told Recode about these interviews .
“ Some of these influencers , whom he was speaking to , have encountered this in their own lives .
They hear it from their audience on comments on their YouTube channels or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ videos.
” Biden ’ s granddaughters , Finn , Maisy , Naomi , and Natalie , are helping , too : His campaign told Recode that they will host Instagram livestreams with influencers who are particularly popular with young people over the next few weeks .
Biden ’ s influencer outreach goes beyond mainstream apps as well .
In September , the campaign debuted Biden-Harris campaign signs in Animal Crossing , the popular social video game that became wildly popular at the start of the pandemic .
Some celebrities , like Andy Cohen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the campaign on Cameo , the video app , which allows them to post fan-requested video messages in exchange for donations .
Of course , linking the campaign to influencers comes with risks .
Biden chatted on Instagram with Jerry Harris , from the popular Netflix show Cheer , in June .
Then in September , Harris was arrested on a child pornography charge .
Some conservative social media accounts have now tried to hint at a connection , including the GOP ’ s director of rapid response on Twitter and right-wing personality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Instagram Live in June with the vlogger Bethany Mota ( who also interviewed President Barack Obama in 2015 ) , a Los Angeles Times opinion piece said it was “ insulting ” and argued against attempts to impress young people with social media stardom instead of focusing on serious issues .
But the Biden campaign says this influencer movement is serious .
“ We ’ re not using celebrities just to launch canvass kickoffs or go around from living room to living room in Iowa and have these small , intimate conversations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re actually using them in a way where we can bring in their audience , and bring their audience into what we ’ re doing on the campaign.
” “ Influencers are not an afterthought , ” Tom said .
“ The idea that influencers are , in some cases , the people who have the most credibility or bring the most bona fides in people ’ s social feeds is a really powerful one and something that we , as the campaign , want to embrace.
” Political influencing on social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A host of other groups are also enlisting influencers and meme accounts to boost Democratic turnout in November , and even to beat back against the threat of disinformation .
Some rely on more traditional celebrities : The super PAC Pacronym is running a swing-state-focused effort alongside comedian Ilana Glazer , who has a million Instagram followers to her name .
The idea is to do video chat interviews with other celebrities like Eric Andre and Zoë Kravitz and encourage people who may not be so pumped about Biden to vote for him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ballot .
Afterward , recordings of the live chats are repackaged into pro-Biden ad material that targets low-turnout voters beyond the reach of Glazer ’ s existing base on platforms like Snapchat and streaming services like Hulu and Roku .
Ultimately , the goal is to reach 7 million people across six states .
NextGen America , a political PAC founded by billionaire Tom Steyer , is looking for all sorts of influencers , including those who focus on beauty , fitness , lifestyle , and even comedy , to reach young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One of these influencers is self-described “ curly lifestyle creator ” Chloe Homan , who has more than 50,000 Instagram followers and has posted to her Instagram story about registering for an absentee ballot with NextGen America ’ s account tagged .
The PAC has spread the same message through the travel influencer couple Travel to Blank , who also urged people to vote for someone who doesn ’ t “ only spread hate.
” Overall , the PAC hopes to reach 12 million people through similarly targeted outreach .
A representative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these influencers are helping NextGen for free , with only about 10 percent asking for compensation .
Meanwhile , the eight-year-old progressive media operation Occupy Democrats — perhaps best known for its memes and seemingly endless supply of political videos and news — is boosting the Biden campaign with its hugely popular Facebook page .
In the past three months , Biden ’ s official campaign page has gotten about 8.5 million interactions ( reactions , shares , and comments ) on posts mentioning Trump , according to data from the Facebook-owned tool @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has gotten almost 90 million interactions on posts mentioning Trump .
Since 2016 — during which the page stumped for Bernie Sanders before eventually transitioning toward pro-Hillary Clinton messaging — the page has emerged as a sort of answer to the right-wing media ecosystem that regularly pushes pro-Trump content .
Now the page has launched a deluge of pro-Biden content — which often does better than Biden ’ s official accounts — as well as an affiliated meme page , Ridin ’ With Biden .
Occupy Democrats co-founder Rafael Rivero told Recode he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Biden campaign .
But because the operation isn ’ t officially part of the campaign , “ we really go for the jugular , ” he said .
( A downside : Sometimes the page — like Biden himself — gets dinged by fact-checkers for sharing misinformation . )
And then there are so-called nano-influencers , according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin .
These somewhat covert influencers , the researchers tell Recode , are people who might have just a few thousand followers but speak to a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ religious leader or a popular local mom , talking about particular issues in a particular area .
“ What we ’ re seeing with nano-influencers is sort of a form of digital astroturfing or inorganic political mobilization , ” Samuel Woolley , one of the researchers , told Recode .
They noted that it ’ s hard to actually identify these campaigns since they ’ re often hiring off-platform .
Countering pro-Trump social media will take more than influencers Joe Biden ’ s online campaigning , official or not , faces a formidable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influencers and media outlets that are ready to boost Trump ’ s competing message , and an array of misinformation , across the web .
That means that even if pro-Biden influencers don ’ t try to fight misinformation themselves , they still may end up competing with it .
“ What Democrats don ’ t have is a powerful progressive media infrastructure to amplify the Biden campaign ’ s messages at every turn , ” Pacronym ’ s Tara McGowan told Recode .
“ The Trump campaign does have that , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media infrastructure.
” That ’ s in part why one group , the Defeat Disinfo PAC , is using influencers to urge people to stay aware of wrong information online , for both the presidential election and other races across the country .
“ The world that we ’ re railing against is a world in which it takes six or seven people to review a tweet .
And in our model and our world , volume and frequency and quality matter , ” says Curtis Hougland of Main Street One , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We ’ re in this asynchronous information-cultural warfare that requires us to have more digital bread crumbs than we ever have before.
” That inevitably means that influencers matter more than ever .
But whether they ’ ll be part of the operation that brings Biden over the finish line ?
Only time will tell .
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network .
All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists .
Will you help keep Vox free for all ?
The United States is in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequential presidential elections of our lifetimes .
It ’ s essential that all Americans are able to access clear , concise information on what the outcome of the election could mean for their lives , and the lives of their families and communities .
That is our mission at Vox .
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In 2016, when traditional American campaign activities like door-to-door canvassing and celebrity-studded get-out-the-vote concerts were centerpieces of presidential campaigns, a viral post of support from a social media star would have been a nice little bonus for candidates.
Four years later, amid an ongoing pandemic that’s made in-person campaigning a public health hazard, much of the electoral battleground has moved to the internet — and getting a boost from influencers on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube is an increasingly important campaign tactic, particularly for Democrats.
That’s because Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is at a digital disadvantage compared to the Trump campaign, which is bolstered by networks of influential conservative personalities who stand ready to amplify its messaging — misinformation and all. That’s in addition to the incumbent president’s own massive online audience: Trump has more than 30 million followers on Facebook and 85 million on Twitter, while Biden has just under 3 million on Facebook and just over 9 million on Twitter.
“We are forced to do everything virtual,” Adrienne Elrod, the director of surrogate strategy for Biden’s campaign, told Recode. “We’re forced to do more [Instagram] Lives. We’re forced to do more Twitter conversations. We’re forced to go to Occupy Democrats.”
With limited time until the election, Biden’s campaign and the organizations and PACs that support him are looking to find new audiences anywhere they can. That’s where online influencers come in.
But this isn’t just about trotting out pro-Biden content from A-list celebrity accounts with tens of millions of online followers. Some of the best support, Biden campaign strategists told Recode, might come from influencers who speak to comparatively smaller but targeted audiences, like persuadable voters from a particular community or people living in a specific swing state. So even if Biden is doing an Instagram Live chat with an influencer you’ve personally never heard of, it’s likely that influencer is speaking with an audience that could be uniquely useful to his campaign.
“We’re bringing their fan base into the campaign,” Elrod explained. “And that is really allowing us to be more specific and more targeted in our approach and in our reach.”
Biden’s influencer strategy means finding audiences where they are
Biden, whose team has even hired a firm to assist with influencer outreach, has developed a formula for working with these influencers: He sits at home, often in front of a plant-filled backdrop and a window, while the influencer asks him open-ended questions that allow Biden to talk off the cuff about any given topic. These interviews are often streamed on Instagram Live, but they also pop up on Facebook and YouTube.
While they are not quite advertisements or endorsement videos, they’re not journalism, either. The goal appears to be as simple as engaging with influencers, people who have credibility with particular audiences, and getting those influencers’ audiences thinking about Biden. Prompts like “what your administration plans on doing to support working families in regards to child care” allow Biden to stick to bread-and-butter anecdotes and talking points, as well as connect with audiences on a personal level. Topics of discussion have included Biden's approach to leadership, and his plans for police reform and combating systematic racism.
For instance, to boost the child care components of his “Build Back Better” campaign, Biden chatted on Facebook Live and YouTube with two parenting influencers who are popular with moms and online parenting communities: Elle Walker, a YouTuber with a 3 million-subscriber-strong channel called WhatsUpMoms, and Dulce Candy, who is a veteran and beauty vlogger with over 2 million subscribers on YouTube (she also spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention). Neither woman was compensated.
“Biden was extremely well-suited to speak to them, not only because of his policy rollout but because he understood what it was like to be a single parent himself,” Christian Tom, the head of digital partnerships for Biden’s campaign, told Recode about these interviews. “Some of these influencers, whom he was speaking to, have encountered this in their own lives. They hear it from their audience on comments on their YouTube channels or responses they get back on their Instagram videos.”
Biden’s granddaughters, Finn, Maisy, Naomi, and Natalie, are helping, too: His campaign told Recode that they will host Instagram livestreams with influencers who are particularly popular with young people over the next few weeks.
Biden’s influencer outreach goes beyond mainstream apps as well. In September, the campaign debuted Biden-Harris campaign signs in Animal Crossing, the popular social video game that became wildly popular at the start of the pandemic. Some celebrities, like Andy Cohen and Dulé Hill, are fundraising for the campaign on Cameo, the video app, which allows them to post fan-requested video messages in exchange for donations.
Of course, linking the campaign to influencers comes with risks. Biden chatted on Instagram with Jerry Harris, from the popular Netflix show Cheer, in June. Then in September, Harris was arrested on a child pornography charge. Some conservative social media accounts have now tried to hint at a connection, including the GOP’s director of rapid response on Twitter and right-wing personality Ben Shapiro. And after Biden did an Instagram Live in June with the vlogger Bethany Mota (who also interviewed President Barack Obama in 2015), a Los Angeles Times opinion piece said it was “insulting” and argued against attempts to impress young people with social media stardom instead of focusing on serious issues.
But the Biden campaign says this influencer movement is serious. “We’re not using celebrities just to launch canvass kickoffs or go around from living room to living room in Iowa and have these small, intimate conversations,” Elrod said. “We’re actually using them in a way where we can bring in their audience, and bring their audience into what we’re doing on the campaign.”
“Influencers are not an afterthought,” Tom said. “The idea that influencers are, in some cases, the people who have the most credibility or bring the most bona fides in people’s social feeds is a really powerful one and something that we, as the campaign, want to embrace.”
Political influencing on social media goes way beyond the Biden campaign
A host of other groups are also enlisting influencers and meme accounts to boost Democratic turnout in November, and even to beat back against the threat of disinformation.
Some rely on more traditional celebrities: The super PAC Pacronym is running a swing-state-focused effort alongside comedian Ilana Glazer, who has a million Instagram followers to her name. The idea is to do video chat interviews with other celebrities like Eric Andre and Zoë Kravitz and encourage people who may not be so pumped about Biden to vote for him anyway, along with Democratic candidates down the ballot.
Afterward, recordings of the live chats are repackaged into pro-Biden ad material that targets low-turnout voters beyond the reach of Glazer’s existing base on platforms like Snapchat and streaming services like Hulu and Roku. Ultimately, the goal is to reach 7 million people across six states.
NextGen America, a political PAC founded by billionaire Tom Steyer, is looking for all sorts of influencers, including those who focus on beauty, fitness, lifestyle, and even comedy, to reach young people online and urge them to vote.
One of these influencers is self-described “curly lifestyle creator” Chloe Homan, who has more than 50,000 Instagram followers and has posted to her Instagram story about registering for an absentee ballot with NextGen America’s account tagged. The PAC has spread the same message through the travel influencer couple Travel to Blank, who also urged people to vote for someone who doesn’t “only spread hate.” Overall, the PAC hopes to reach 12 million people through similarly targeted outreach. A representative for the PAC told Recode most of these influencers are helping NextGen for free, with only about 10 percent asking for compensation.
Meanwhile, the eight-year-old progressive media operation Occupy Democrats — perhaps best known for its memes and seemingly endless supply of political videos and news — is boosting the Biden campaign with its hugely popular Facebook page. In the past three months, Biden’s official campaign page has gotten about 8.5 million interactions (reactions, shares, and comments) on posts mentioning Trump, according to data from the Facebook-owned tool CrowdTangle. In comparison, Occupy Democrats has gotten almost 90 million interactions on posts mentioning Trump. Since 2016 — during which the page stumped for Bernie Sanders before eventually transitioning toward pro-Hillary Clinton messaging — the page has emerged as a sort of answer to the right-wing media ecosystem that regularly pushes pro-Trump content.
Now the page has launched a deluge of pro-Biden content — which often does better than Biden’s official accounts — as well as an affiliated meme page, Ridin’ With Biden. Occupy Democrats co-founder Rafael Rivero told Recode he’s “plugged in” with the Biden campaign. But because the operation isn’t officially part of the campaign, “we really go for the jugular,” he said. (A downside: Sometimes the page — like Biden himself — gets dinged by fact-checkers for sharing misinformation.)
And then there are so-called nano-influencers, according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. These somewhat covert influencers, the researchers tell Recode, are people who might have just a few thousand followers but speak to a very specific community. That might be a religious leader or a popular local mom, talking about particular issues in a particular area.
“What we’re seeing with nano-influencers is sort of a form of digital astroturfing or inorganic political mobilization,” Samuel Woolley, one of the researchers, told Recode. They noted that it’s hard to actually identify these campaigns since they’re often hiring off-platform.
Countering pro-Trump social media will take more than influencers
Joe Biden’s online campaigning, official or not, faces a formidable challenge: a strong network of right-wing influencers and media outlets that are ready to boost Trump’s competing message, and an array of misinformation, across the web. That means that even if pro-Biden influencers don’t try to fight misinformation themselves, they still may end up competing with it.
“What Democrats don’t have is a powerful progressive media infrastructure to amplify the Biden campaign’s messages at every turn,” Pacronym’s Tara McGowan told Recode. “The Trump campaign does have that, so Trump benefits hugely from a robust right-wing media infrastructure.”
That’s in part why one group, the Defeat Disinfo PAC, is using influencers to urge people to stay aware of wrong information online, for both the presidential election and other races across the country.
“The world that we’re railing against is a world in which it takes six or seven people to review a tweet. And in our model and our world, volume and frequency and quality matter,” says Curtis Hougland of Main Street One, the firm that organized that digital campaign. “We’re in this asynchronous information-cultural warfare that requires us to have more digital bread crumbs than we ever have before.”
That inevitably means that influencers matter more than ever. But whether they’ll be part of the operation that brings Biden over the finish line? Only time will tell.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.


vox--2020-09-23--Pigs are as smart as dogs. Why do we eat one and love the other?

Imagine a dog .
She spends her entire life in an iron crate so small that she can not turn around .
Her tail has been cut off so that other dogs in cages jammed up against hers won ’ t chew it off in distress .
When she has puppies , the males are castrated without painkillers .
They are left close enough for her to nurse , but too far away for her to show them any affection .
Fortunately , this dog is a fictional creation .
We have laws preventing people from treating pets this way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to animals that are very similar to dogs .
This is an all-too-real description of how we treat some of the millions and millions of pigs we raise for meat on factory farms .
So why do we treat the animals we eat in ways we would never , ever treat our pets ?
For the third season of the Vox Media Podcast Network series Future Perfect , we delve into how the meat we eat affects all of us .
In this episode , we speak with Lori Marino , a neuroscientist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to try to understand this paradox on our plates .
Marino makes it clear that pigs — and even chickens — are intelligent , emotional beings worthy of our moral consideration .
She also helps us understand why we don ’ t consider them morally worthy .
You can subscribe to Future Perfect on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , or wherever you get your podcasts .
• Lori Marino has written in-depth roundups of the existing research on both chicken cognition and pig cognition .
• You might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attitudes toward chickens changed after taking a class in chicken training .
• This podcast episode uses clips from a BBC Earth segment on how pig intelligence compares to toddler intelligence , as well as from a Compassion in World Farming piece on pigs and video games .
• Dylan Matthews here at Vox has written in depth about unnecessarily painful pig castration .
He ’ s also written explained the practice of mass culling male chicks .
• Watch the first-ever video of pigs using tools with no human prompting .
• @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ wild caught , ” “ organic , ” and “ grass-fed ” actually mean for the food you eat , Rachel Krantz wrote this useful guide .
We also have more information on what it means for eggs to be “ cage-free.
” This podcast was made possible thanks to support from Animal Charity Evaluators , a nonprofit that researches and promotes the most effective ways to help animals .
Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter .
Twice a week , you ’ ll get a roundup of ideas and solutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public health , decreasing human and animal suffering , easing catastrophic risks , and — to put it simply — getting better at doing good .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Imagine a dog. She spends her entire life in an iron crate so small that she cannot turn around. Her tail has been cut off so that other dogs in cages jammed up against hers won’t chew it off in distress. When she has puppies, the males are castrated without painkillers. They are left close enough for her to nurse, but too far away for her to show them any affection.
Fortunately, this dog is a fictional creation. We have laws preventing people from treating pets this way.
Unfortunately, we are doing this to animals that are very similar to dogs. This is an all-too-real description of how we treat some of the millions and millions of pigs we raise for meat on factory farms.
So why do we treat the animals we eat in ways we would never, ever treat our pets?
For the third season of the Vox Media Podcast Network series Future Perfect, we delve into how the meat we eat affects all of us. In this episode, we speak with Lori Marino, a neuroscientist who studies animal behavior and intelligence, to try to understand this paradox on our plates.
Marino makes it clear that pigs — and even chickens — are intelligent, emotional beings worthy of our moral consideration. She also helps us understand why we don’t consider them morally worthy.
You can subscribe to Future Perfect on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Further reading:
This podcast was made possible thanks to support from Animal Charity Evaluators, a nonprofit that researches and promotes the most effective ways to help animals.
Sign up for the Future Perfect newsletter. Twice a week, you’ll get a roundup of ideas and solutions for tackling our biggest challenges: improving public health, decreasing human and animal suffering, easing catastrophic risks, and — to put it simply — getting better at doing good.
ntribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-09-23--The long history of trans voters’ disenfranchisement, explained

Last November , a trans woman was asked for identification when she went to her local polling place to vote in Cornelius , North Carolina .
The poll worker had balked when the woman gave what the worker perceived was a masculine name , calling over the precinct ’ s chief judge to get involved and demand identification , according to the Charlotte Observer .
While the state had recently passed a voter ID law , it hadn ’ t taken effect yet .
None of this was legal .
The woman was ultimately able to vote , but the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shame and harassment many trans people endure to cast a ballot — and that ’ s if they can even cast one .
Trans people who live in the 35 states with voter ID laws face challenges if they don ’ t have a form of identification that matches their gender identity .
According to a February report from the Williams Institute , an LGBTQ research hub at the University of California Los Angeles , an estimated 260,000 trans people do not have an ID that correctly reflects their name and/or gender to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With approximately 1.4 million trans adults in the US , this is a significant portion of the trans population .
While voter ID laws may be the latest barrier to trans people accessing the vote , they ’ re historically by no means the only one .
Most trans people have always lived at the margins of society and have faced social and economic difficulties — homelessness , incarceration , and institutionalization — that have long served as roadblocks to voting .
A lack of employment and housing protections throughout most of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people , particularly for Black and Indigenous trans women and other trans women of color .
According to a 2017 survey by New York City ’ s Anti-Violence Project , transgender New Yorkers were more likely to have a college degree than the general population , but just 45 percent of them have full-time jobs .
Overall , transgender workers are more likely to be unemployed compared to their cisgender counterparts , and 34 percent of Black trans women face housing insecurity compared to just 9 percent of non-Black trans people .
Such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenging .
“ People tend to be more engaged politically when they ’ re stable , when they ’ re invested in a community , ” Astra Taylor , whose 2018 book Democracy May Not Exist , but We ’ ll Miss It When It ’ s Gone is a deep dive into American disenfranchisement , told Vox .
“ All of these things compound when you are more likely to be poor , you ’ re less likely to own property , and you ’ re more transient .
[ They ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote.
” Systemic problems , coupled with discriminatory laws , have long limited the voting rights of America ’ s most marginalized — and trans people have faced disenfranchisement from all angles .
Many people are familiar with the more famous dates in suffrage history , even if the logistics are much more complicated than they seem : Black men , at least on paper if not in practice , gained the right to vote in 1869 ; white women did the same in 1920 ; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , giving many Black women the right to vote for the first time .
But the history of trans voting rights is more amorphous and more difficult to define .
Anti-cross-dressing laws in many cities and jurisdictions made it difficult for trans people to simply exist openly in public before the 1960s .
According to Susan Stryker , a trans historian and professor emerita at the University of Arizona , anti-cross-dressing laws started popping up in the United States in concert with the mass urbanization seen in cities like St. Louis , San @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ undergoing really rapid demographic and economic transformation ” in the 1840s .
“ It wasn ’ t necessarily transphobia per se , but usually it was part of a broader suite of things that were imposing social order and good governance and morality , ” Stryker said .
“ They were connected with things like ordinances against public drunkenness or nudity or lewd behavior , and often against prostitution.
” But while those offenses weren ’ t felonies on their own — in many states , felons can ’ t vote , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison term has expired or their probation is completed — they did attract attention from the police , which often led to further , more serious charges that potentially put a trans person ’ s right to vote at risk .
“ What counts as a criminal is always political , ” said Taylor , who noted that criminals in democratic societies , going back even to ancient Greece , were often denied the right to vote .
“ The disenfranchisement of felons in this country is , on one hand , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led by Republicans to enforce their minority rule and to bolster their power .
But it ’ s also this very old , timeworn idea that is deeply enmeshed in our culture and our collective unconscious.
” Though officially repealed in the late 1970s after protests by LGBTQ people and several significant legal wins , the anti-cross-dressing seeds planted in the mid-19th century took root and still exist in many places in the US today in the form of “ walking while trans ” laws , which allow police to stop trans women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers .
A Black trans activist in Arizona was infamously arrested in this fashion in 2014 , and an NYPD officer testified at a deposition last year that he would drive down the street looking for women with “ Adam ’ s apples ” to stop on suspicion of solicitation .
Under the law in New York and many other states , discovery of a condom in a purse is sufficient evidence to arrest a trans woman on prostitution charges .
Much like the anti-cross-dressing laws , these are also not felonies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can potentially lead to harsher charges , which can potentially lead to disenfranchisement .
For example , Arizona has one of the stricter felony voting rights restrictions in the southwestern US , while New York state allows felons to vote only if their maximum prison term has expired or they have completed probation .
Because of this , Tori Cooper , director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative at the Human Rights Campaign , told Vox that the fight for former felons to vote and the fight for trans voting rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black trans women will face incarceration at least once in their lifetime , a rate significantly higher than the general population .
Cooper pointed to the legal dispute in Florida over felon voting rights .
After a statewide referendum in 2018 to restore voting rights to felons in the state , Republican lawmakers in Florida passed a law requiring felons to pay off any fees associated with their sentence before being allowed to vote , which critics liken to a poll tax .
It was recently upheld in court , and now 774,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identities , have once again been presented with a roadblock to voting .
“ We know that there are certain entities that are fighting tooth and nail to make sure that folks who have felonies can ’ t vote , no matter what the felony , and that ’ s terribly , terribly wrong .
And it leads to further disenfranchisement , which leads to further marginalization , ” said Cooper .
In 35 states , you need an ID to vote ; 18 of those states require a photo ID .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and your gender don ’ t match your ID , you can be challenged at the polls like the woman from North Carolina .
Unfortunately , the solution to this roadblock isn ’ t as easy as a trans person walking into the DMV and asking for a gender marker change .
In fact , it wasn ’ t even possible for trans people to change their legal gender until well into the 1970s .
A series of court battles in New York in the late ’ 60s and early ’ 70s failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that only allowed gender changes on birth certificates in the case of error .
But a Connecticut state court ruling in 1975 began to move the legal needle on the issue , when it was decided that the state must demonstrate a significant interest in order to deny a name and gender change .
Like anti-cross-dressing laws , rules and standards around legal name and gender changes for trans people differed depending on where a trans person was born .
“ When we ’ re looking at voting while trans , we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different types of state laws : voter ID laws and name and gender change laws , ” Arli Christian , campaign strategist with the national political advocacy department at the American Civil Liberties Union , told Vox .
“ In the past 10 years , we have seen improvement in gender change laws on the state level .
We ’ ve seen laws move away from a medicalized model of trans identity where administrators would inappropriately request information about private medical procedures to get your documents updated.
” Up until the early 2010s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ official IDs required proof that an applicant underwent gender-affirming surgery in order to change their gender marker .
With the procedure often explicitly excluded from health insurance coverage and costing at least $ 20,000 out of pocket , that requirement put legal gender changes out of reach for the vast majority of trans people .
Add to that the cruelty in requiring trans people to sterilize themselves just to get an ID that matches their identity and the fact that many trans and nonbinary people don ’ t want surgeries in the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 states now allow legal ID changes without a doctor ’ s note .
However , nine states — Iowa , South Carolina , Georgia , Alabama , Tennessee , Kentucky , Louisiana , Texas , and Oklahoma — still require proof of surgery in order for someone to change their legal gender .
All of those states also have voter ID laws on the books , potentially opening up trans people to discrimination at the polls on Election Day .
“ The most problematic states are when you have a state with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on top of that , they have burdened burdensome policies for updating the name and gender marker on the ID , ” said Christian .
“ That ’ s when you present a huge barrier for trans people in that state , and sort of coming together , those two things make a mess.
” After four years of attacks from the Trump administration — from the trans military ban to rolling back trans health care protections — the election is critically important for trans rights .
And with so much on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible need to be able to cast a vote this November .
Their lives , livelihoods , and chances at stability may depend on it .
Help keep Vox free for all Millions turn to Vox each month to understand what ’ s happening in the news , from the coronavirus crisis to a racial reckoning to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment : to empower you through understanding .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work .
If you have already contributed , thank you .
If you haven ’ t , please consider helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world : Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Last November, a trans woman was asked for identification when she went to her local polling place to vote in Cornelius, North Carolina. The poll worker had balked when the woman gave what the worker perceived was a masculine name, calling over the precinct’s chief judge to get involved and demand identification, according to the Charlotte Observer.
While the state had recently passed a voter ID law, it hadn’t taken effect yet. None of this was legal.
The woman was ultimately able to vote, but the incident and others like it underscore the shame and harassment many trans people endure to cast a ballot — and that’s if they can even cast one. Trans people who live in the 35 states with voter ID laws face challenges if they don’t have a form of identification that matches their gender identity. According to a February report from the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ research hub at the University of California Los Angeles, an estimated 260,000 trans people do not have an ID that correctly reflects their name and/or gender to use in the 2020 presidential election. With approximately 1.4 million trans adults in the US, this is a significant portion of the trans population.
While voter ID laws may be the latest barrier to trans people accessing the vote, they’re historically by no means the only one.
Most trans people have always lived at the margins of society and have faced social and economic difficulties — homelessness, incarceration, and institutionalization — that have long served as roadblocks to voting.
A lack of employment and housing protections throughout most of the country contributes to financial insecurity for trans people, particularly for Black and Indigenous trans women and other trans women of color. According to a 2017 survey by New York City’s Anti-Violence Project, transgender New Yorkers were more likely to have a college degree than the general population, but just 45 percent of them have full-time jobs. Overall, transgender workers are more likely to be unemployed compared to their cisgender counterparts, and 34 percent of Black trans women face housing insecurity compared to just 9 percent of non-Black trans people. Such instability can make the logistics of voting challenging.
“People tend to be more engaged politically when they’re stable, when they’re invested in a community,” Astra Taylor, whose 2018 book Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone is a deep dive into American disenfranchisement, told Vox. “All of these things compound when you are more likely to be poor, you’re less likely to own property, and you’re more transient. [They] make it really hard to register to vote.”
Systemic problems, coupled with discriminatory laws, have long limited the voting rights of America’s most marginalized — and trans people have faced disenfranchisement from all angles.
The history of trans voting rights
Many people are familiar with the more famous dates in suffrage history, even if the logistics are much more complicated than they seem: Black men, at least on paper if not in practice, gained the right to vote in 1869; white women did the same in 1920; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 got rid of Jim Crow voting laws, giving many Black women the right to vote for the first time. But the history of trans voting rights is more amorphous and more difficult to define.
Anti-cross-dressing laws in many cities and jurisdictions made it difficult for trans people to simply exist openly in public before the 1960s. According to Susan Stryker, a trans historian and professor emerita at the University of Arizona, anti-cross-dressing laws started popping up in the United States in concert with the mass urbanization seen in cities like St. Louis, San Francisco, and Chicago, which were “undergoing really rapid demographic and economic transformation” in the 1840s.
“It wasn’t necessarily transphobia per se, but usually it was part of a broader suite of things that were imposing social order and good governance and morality,” Stryker said. “They were connected with things like ordinances against public drunkenness or nudity or lewd behavior, and often against prostitution.”
But while those offenses weren’t felonies on their own — in many states, felons can’t vote, or can only vote after their maximum prison term has expired or their probation is completed — they did attract attention from the police, which often led to further, more serious charges that potentially put a trans person’s right to vote at risk.
“What counts as a criminal is always political,” said Taylor, who noted that criminals in democratic societies, going back even to ancient Greece, were often denied the right to vote. “The disenfranchisement of felons in this country is, on one hand, a kind of very cold and calculating strategy led by Republicans to enforce their minority rule and to bolster their power. But it’s also this very old, timeworn idea that is deeply enmeshed in our culture and our collective unconscious.”
Though officially repealed in the late 1970s after protests by LGBTQ people and several significant legal wins, the anti-cross-dressing seeds planted in the mid-19th century took root and still exist in many places in the US today in the form of “walking while trans” laws, which allow police to stop trans women on the assumption that they are sex workers. A Black trans activist in Arizona was infamously arrested in this fashion in 2014, and an NYPD officer testified at a deposition last year that he would drive down the street looking for women with “Adam’s apples” to stop on suspicion of solicitation. Under the law in New York and many other states, discovery of a condom in a purse is sufficient evidence to arrest a trans woman on prostitution charges.
Much like the anti-cross-dressing laws, these are also not felonies, but more interactions people have with police can potentially lead to harsher charges, which can potentially lead to disenfranchisement. For example, Arizona has one of the stricter felony voting rights restrictions in the southwestern US, while New York state allows felons to vote only if their maximum prison term has expired or they have completed probation.
Because of this, Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative at the Human Rights Campaign, told Vox that the fight for former felons to vote and the fight for trans voting rights are inherently linked — 21 percent of Black trans women will face incarceration at least once in their lifetime, a rate significantly higher than the general population.
Cooper pointed to the legal dispute in Florida over felon voting rights. After a statewide referendum in 2018 to restore voting rights to felons in the state, Republican lawmakers in Florida passed a law requiring felons to pay off any fees associated with their sentence before being allowed to vote, which critics liken to a poll tax. It was recently upheld in court, and now 774,000 Floridians, many of them from marginalized identities, have once again been presented with a roadblock to voting.
“We know that there are certain entities that are fighting tooth and nail to make sure that folks who have felonies can’t vote, no matter what the felony, and that’s terribly, terribly wrong. And it leads to further disenfranchisement, which leads to further marginalization,” said Cooper.
Voter ID laws and inconsistent gender change processes combine to marginalize trans voters
In 35 states, you need an ID to vote; 18 of those states require a photo ID. If you’re trans and your name and your gender don’t match your ID, you can be challenged at the polls like the woman from North Carolina.
Unfortunately, the solution to this roadblock isn’t as easy as a trans person walking into the DMV and asking for a gender marker change.
In fact, it wasn’t even possible for trans people to change their legal gender until well into the 1970s. A series of court battles in New York in the late ’60s and early ’70s failed to challenge administrative rules in the state that only allowed gender changes on birth certificates in the case of error. But a Connecticut state court ruling in 1975 began to move the legal needle on the issue, when it was decided that the state must demonstrate a significant interest in order to deny a name and gender change. Like anti-cross-dressing laws, rules and standards around legal name and gender changes for trans people differed depending on where a trans person was born.
“When we’re looking at voting while trans, we’re looking at the intersection of two different types of state laws: voter ID laws and name and gender change laws,” Arli Christian, campaign strategist with the national political advocacy department at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Vox. “In the past 10 years, we have seen improvement in gender change laws on the state level. We’ve seen laws move away from a medicalized model of trans identity where administrators would inappropriately request information about private medical procedures to get your documents updated.”
Up until the early 2010s, states that allowed gender changes on official IDs required proof that an applicant underwent gender-affirming surgery in order to change their gender marker. With the procedure often explicitly excluded from health insurance coverage and costing at least $20,000 out of pocket, that requirement put legal gender changes out of reach for the vast majority of trans people. Add to that the cruelty in requiring trans people to sterilize themselves just to get an ID that matches their identity and the fact that many trans and nonbinary people don’t want surgeries in the first place.
According to Christian, about 20 states now allow legal ID changes without a doctor’s note. However, nine states — Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma — still require proof of surgery in order for someone to change their legal gender. All of those states also have voter ID laws on the books, potentially opening up trans people to discrimination at the polls on Election Day.
“The most problematic states are when you have a state with a strict photo ID requirement, and on top of that, they have burdened burdensome policies for updating the name and gender marker on the ID,” said Christian. “That’s when you present a huge barrier for trans people in that state, and sort of coming together, those two things make a mess.”
After four years of attacks from the Trump administration — from the trans military ban to rolling back trans health care protections — the election is critically important for trans rights. And with so much on the line, as many trans people as possible need to be able to cast a vote this November. Their lives, livelihoods, and chances at stability may depend on it.