Advocates in Bozeman, Montana, are using a once-in-a-decade chance to reshape their local government structure to create more equitable representation and, eventually, more affordable housing policy.
October 2, 2024
Your Cheat Sheet to the 2024 General Elections
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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 Mississippi
Court Upholds Mississippi’s Jim Crow-Era Lifetime Voting Ban
“Imagine if just half of those folks could vote,” says a Mississippi advocate who hoped to defeat his state’s practice of permanent felony disenfranchisement.
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.
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.
You Asked Bolts. We Answered.
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.
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.
