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Learn about State Courts

Your State-by-State Guide to Every State Supreme Court

Bolts breaks down the structure, selection procedures, and functions of each state’s highest court.

Learn About Election Administration

Who Counts Our Elections?

Who are the local and state officials who are responsible for counting, canvassing, and certifying elections?

Voting in Michigan

The Michigan Jail that Candidates Keep Visiting

This county lockup in Flint goes far beyond most in promoting civic engagement. But the jail still cuts people off from the world in many other ways while they await trial, sometimes for years.

Executions in Alabama

In Alabama, Prison Guards Accused of Violence and Misconduct Carry Out Secretive Executions

As the state keeps details around the death penalty hidden, an investigation into its execution team raises questions about how incarcerated people are treated in their final moments.

Policing in Chicago

Chicago Police Made Nearly 200,000 Secret Traffic Stops Last Year

Chicago police are required to document every time they pull someone over. But a new investigation reveals the department is releasing vastly incomplete data to oversight agencies, even as the superintendent pledges reforms.

In 2025, Politics Is Local

Bolts covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change, from the local up. We report on the places, people, and policies that shape public policy. We focus on criminal justice and voting rights, and delve further in our vertical What’s on the Ballot.

Supreme Courts

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About State Supreme Courts

Why these courts matter, how they work, and the levers for changing them: Bolts answers your questions on these powerful institutions.

Direct Democracy

“It Just Feels Like Death”: Barrage of New Rules Target Arkansas Ballot Initiatives

Faced with popular initiatives to protect abortion rights and other measures they dislike, state Republicans are passing new bills that local advocates say will hollow out direct democracy.

Voter Registration

Michigan Law Is First to Automatically Register People to Vote As They Leave Prison

The legislature passed a bill that will also expand automatic voter registration in other ways, including applying it at Medicaid offices, and likely add many new Michiganders to voter rolls.

Long ReadS

May 5, 2022

A Future for Susanville

Plans to shutter a California prison offer halting glimpses of a different world: an economy that doesn’t revolve around incarceration, a country where losing your job isn’t tantamount to ruin, and an opening for abolition.
Piper French,
August 28, 2024

On Native Land, a New Push to Expand Voting Meets the Long Tail of State Violence

Ongoing negotiations between tribal leaders and Colorado officials may chart a new path for automatically registering Native voters and growing voter rolls nationwide. But first the state is having to confront a legacy of mistrust.
Alex Burness,