Media

Legal Action taken due to State’s Failure to Comply with "Motor Voter" Law

SACRAMENTO, CA —Voting rights groups filed a federal lawsuit today against California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for its failure to offer federally mandated voter registration opportunities to millions of Californians.

Since 2006, states across the country have implemented strict voter ID laws, which require photo identification at polling places. Extensive research has suggested that these laws are motivated by racism and partisanship.

This blog post adds details to “Infrastructure Priorities for Racial Equity: How The People’s Budget Helps and Trump’s Budget Hurts.” It is one of a series of blogs on the priority areas for infrastructure investments to achieve racial equity.

Achieve School Infrastructure Equity

Here, we offer new data to show that shifts in which racial groups went to the polls may have made the difference.

Our analysis shows Trump accelerated a realignment in the electorate around racism, across several different measures of racial animus—and that it helped him win. By contrast, we found little evidence to suggest individual economic distress benefited Trump. [...]

Two priority areas for infrastructure investments to achieve racial equity.

May 5, 2017 (New York, NY) – Amidst multiple ongoing investigations into the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards at the hands of a Texas police officer, Heather McGhee, President of the New York-based public policy think tank Demos, issued the following statement:

 “Jordan Edwards was a 15-year-old freshman at Mesquite High School, in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. He was loved by his parents, his siblings, and his friends, who will now have to miss him every day for the rest of their lives.

Donald Trump campaigned as the defender of working Americans. In his inaugural address, Trump vowed that every decision he made would be to benefit America’s workers. Yet his proposed federal budget, Cabinet appointments, and other actions since taking office suggest little concern for workers’ wages, safety, and overall well-being.

This hour, we tackle issues involving race, policy, and U.S. democracy with Demos President Heather McGhee.