Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here.A person who is not a U.S. citizen faces felony charges in Michigan after he allegedly cast a ballot at an Ann Arbor polling place over the weekend, state and local officials announced Wednesday.That voter — reported by The Detroit News and confirmed by the Secretary of State’s office to be a 19-year-old University of Michigan student from China — could face up to nine years in prison if found guilty. Only U.S. citizens are eligible to...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat’s free national newsletter here.The presidential election is unique in American democracy because of the Electoral College. It’s the only election that is decided this way, as laid out in the U.S. Constitution.Most other elections in the country are decided by a simple majority or plurality of all votes cast. In the presidential election, that’s called the popular vote. To become president, a candidate must win a majority of votes in the Electoral College. It is the electoral vote that elects the president.The Electoral College is as old as the United States, and has specific rules and procedures. Do you know how it works? Take the quiz below and find out!→ Take the quiz!Lauren Aguirre is Votebeat’s engagement editor, focused on connecting people to information they need about voting in their state. She is based in Philadelphia. Contact Lauren at laguirre@votebeat.org.

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat’s free national newsletter here.The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Virginia can remove roughly 1,600 voters it believes to be noncitizens from its rolls before next Tuesday’s election, even though federal law bans systematic cleaning of state voter rolls for 90 days before a federal election.Justices issued a brief order granting Virginia’s emergency stay request and, as is typical in such instances, did not explain their legal reasoning. The order noted that Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Editor’s Note: This is a developing news story that will be updated.Philadelphia must count mail ballots from the September special elections that were submitted with return envelopes that voters incorrectly dated or failed to date, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday in a decision that doesn’t explicitly apply to the November general election.While the ruling applies narrowly, it raises the possibility of additional action by the state Supreme Court and gives county officials yet another ruling to...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.Concrete barriers sit along the sidewalks outside Maricopa County’s election center in downtown Phoenix. A chain-link fence with privacy covers encloses the parking lot. Surrounding the building itself is another black steel security fence, this one permanent. And inside the building, there are locked doors behind locked doors.Outside on Tuesday, the gate on the security fence buzzed, followed by latches opening, then slamming shut again, as workers walked in and out.With seven days to go, this is...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here.While most Michigan voters are able to make a simple plan for voting — Where is the polling place, and when am I going? — voters with disabilities often have a lot more issues to contend with.Users of wheelchairs or other mobility aids need to know: Will the polling place have accessible parking, a clear pathway in, and an entrance anyone can use? For those with other disabilities: Will the voting machine designed to be accessible for...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.Results from ballots cast at Maricopa County’s Election Day polling places will be delayed due to a Republican-backed change in state law, a lag that could fuel false claims as the nation awaits the outcome of the presidential race.The expected slowdown stems from a new state law enacted in February that requires poll workers to tally the number of mail ballot envelopes dropped off at the location before they deliver results to the central counting facility. This...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.A group of citizens are challenging hundreds of mail ballot applications in southeast Pennsylvania, claiming they were submitted by voters who have moved to a new address that disqualifies them from voting in the state. The challengers, apparently working as organized activists across multiple counties, are claiming that these voters are ineligible for a mail ballot because the address in the state’s mail ballot request file does not match an address connected to the voter’s name in...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.Pinal County voters who show up to vote at the wrong polling place on Election Day will not be provided a way to vote the correct ballot at that location, despite a new state rule, under an Arizona Supreme Court ruling.In an emergency ruling issued Friday, the court determined it is too late to force the county to follow the rule, which Secretary of State Adrian Fontes created in December 2023. It requires Arizona counties that assign...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter here.This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, and with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom that engages with Texans. Sign up to receive ProPublica’s biggest stories here and The Texas Tribune’s newsletters here.Mary Howard-Elley fervently believes illegal immigration in the U.S. is a critical problem that only former President Donald Trump can solve. She says the continuation of his border wall and promised mass deportations will make the...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S.This news analysis was originally distributed in Votebeat’s free weekly newsletter. Sign up to get future editions, including the latest reporting from Votebeat bureaus and curated news from other publications, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.The last day of voting is in just over a week, and for this newsletter, we thought it best to get out of the way of the experts. We asked three of them — John Merrill, the Republican former secretary of state in Alabama; Kathy Boockvar, the Democratic former secretary...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter here.This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.Last year, Hannah Murry remembers, she filled out every line of her paper voter registration.She then gave it to a volunteer deputy registrar at a registration drive at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where she’s a student.“I thought that was handled, so I just went on with my life,” said Murry.It wasn’t handled.Murry, 21, found that out when she went to an early voting location in Nueces County last...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Lancaster County officials said Friday they identified an undisclosed number of voter registration applications as fraudulent, and the district attorney has launched a criminal investigation.The three county commissioners on the board of elections, along with the county’s district attorney, said a number of suspicious registrations were delivered to the county near the Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.District Attorney Heather Adams, a Republican, said the county elections director notified her that approximately 2,500 applications delivered near the deadline...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.For months, Wisconsin Republicans have been pursuing a cache of Department of Transportation citizenship data that they say could help election officials identify and remove alleged noncitizens from the voter rolls.Those records have been the focus of a lawsuit, a legislative hearing, and an ongoing public debate about whether noncitizen voting is a real concern in the Nov. 5 election.Department of Transportation officials said in a mid-October court filing that the information Republicans are seeking isn’t reliable...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.An election clerk in San Antonio was allegedly assaulted late Thursday and the suspect, a voter, was arrested, officials said. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of injury to an elderly person, a felony.The incident is believed to be the first instance of reported violence against an election worker this fall. Early voting began Monday in Texas. According to a sheriff’s report, the suspect, 63-year-old Jesse Lutzenberger, walked into the polling location on San Antonio’s west side, wearing...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Wisconsin’s free newsletter here.Voting delays caused by printing issues persisted across Wisconsin on Thursday morning, the third day of early in-person voting, as election officials implemented workarounds to mitigate long waits at some polling sites.The root cause of the printing issue isn’t clear yet, but the result is that the labels workers stick on absentee ballot envelopes, typically before voters mark their ballot, could take as much as 15 minutes each to print. Election workers or voters can handwrite most...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here.A misleading claim promoted by right-wing activists has gained traction through X owner Elon Musk and other supporters of Donald Trump, feeding a false impression that there’s something wrong with Michigan’s voter rolls.The claim — that Michigan has more voters than people eligible to vote — has been debunked extensively by the state as well as independent experts. A federal court ruling this week weighed in on a similar GOP claim, finding flaws in the comparison of...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Pennsylvanians must be given a chance to vote on Election Day if their mail ballots have been rejected because of a disqualifying mistake, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.That means voters who fail to correctly sign or date the return envelope or fail to use a secrecy envelope are entitled to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day at a polling place and have it counted, as long as that ballot wouldn’t be rejected for some other...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here.Voters in most Pennsylvania counties will have the chance to fix errors with their mail ballots during this election and spare them from being rejected, according to a review of county policies by Votebeat and Spotlight PA.Thirty-four counties allow voters to fix errors with their mail ballots in some way, and in seven other counties mail voters can at least cast a provisional ballot at their polling place on Election Day if they make a mistake that...

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Arizona’s free newsletter here.Arizona’s election system has been thrown into turmoil over the past four years by false claims of widespread fraud and some real instances of mistakes in running elections. Now, Republican candidates for county recorder across the state are playing up those false claims and errors as they try to get elected.Their opponents acknowledge that Arizona elections can be improved, but warn voters to be wary of turning over crucial decisions about voting to candidates who seek to...