Media

Each major election, thousands of volunteers fan out in communities all across the nation to register their neighbors to vote. You may see some of them in your travels today, National Voter Registration Day. Community voter registration drives like these provide an essential service, adding many thousands of unregistered citizens to the voter rolls.

Outside money transforms California’s income inequality, among the worst in the country, into political inequality.

An income gap exists between Congress and the general population, and the gap is getting bigger. The Center For Responsive Politics documents the increase of congressional wealth over the past few years. In effect, Americans are now being represented not by their peers; but by the 1 percent.

Mitt Romney's release of his 2011 tax rates -- which showed that he paid a 14 percent tax rate -- has again spotlighted the preferential ways that the tax code treats invested wealth. While a multimillion dollar income earned by an employee -- say, a baseball player or a news anchor -- would be taxed at 35 percent (not including payroll taxes), the rate for capital gains income is 15 percent.

When the Supreme Court in Citizens United allowed corporations to spend money in elections they thought that shareholders would be able to monitor the use of corporate funds “through procedures of corporate democracy.”

On the eve of National Voter Registration Day, California has taken a huge leap forward in reducing the barriers to voting. Governor Brown signed into law a Same Day Registration program, making California the 11th (and largest) state – plus Washington, D.C.

As a practical matter, government largely functions through bureaucratic regulations. But controversy is growing around the seemingly benign requirement that regulators consider costs and benefits when adopting new rules. Despite the rationality implied by the words “costs and benefits,” those who champion greater attention to these factors are, in fact, mounting an insidiously dangerous attack on government.

Election integrity is impaired when eligible Americans are prevented from exercising their fundamental right to vote and having their voices heard on the issues that affect their lives. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania just said the same thing when considering a new voter ID requirement, writing “if the Law is enforced in a manner that prevents qualified and eligible electors from voting, the integrity of the upcoming General Election will be impaired.”

As we’ve written, New York is considering allowing fracking in limited areas of the state, despite the environmental and economic damage that comes with the practice.