September 5, 2024
The Final Primaries of 2024
Democrats are settling major ideological battles in two states they control, Delaware and Rhode Island. And both parties will set up hotly contested general elections in New Hampshire.
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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?
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In 2024, 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.
Voting in California
Disabled Californians Challenge Absentee Voting Rules That Deny Them a Secret Ballot
Disability rights groups are suing for an electronic option to return ballots without assistance, which is allowed in a dozen other states, but they face pushback over security concerns.
Prosecution in Virginia
“An Impossible Choice”: Virginians Asked to Waive Constitutional Rights to Get a Plea Deal
Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have barred prosecutors from making defendants waive protections against unreasonable police searches as a condition of pleas.
Policing in Michigan
A Michigan City Ended Low-Level Traffic Stops. Now the County Could Follow.
In the race for Washtenaw County sheriff, candidates want to limit unnecessary policing encounters and reduce fees from traffic enforcement.
Criminal justice and local politics
Supreme Courts
Your State-by-State Guide to the 2024 Supreme Court Elections
Voters this year are deciding the fate of 82 seats across 33 states’ high courts. Cases involving abortion, democracy, and other critical issues hang in the balance.
Direct Democracy
Utah’s Highest Court Safeguards the People’s Right to Direct Democracy
The decision is a blow to the state GOP’s attempts to ignore a citizen initiative that had reformed redistricting. But the state’s gerrymandered maps remain in effect for now.
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.
The 2024 Elections
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.
June 29, 2023
“Just an Opportunity to Come Home”
Illinois, Minnesota, and New Mexico this year abolished sentences of life without parole for juveniles. Now comes the hard part.
