Election Watch

John Henry of Charleston, W.Va., walks into a polling place at Weberwood Elementary Saturday, May 14, 2011 in Charleston, W.Va. West Virginia voters head to the polls for the fourth time in 12 months to nomination a Republican and a Democrat candidate to run in October's special gubernatorial election. Photo: Jeff Gentner/AP Photo
John Henry of Charleston, W.Va., walks into a polling place at Weberwood Elementary Saturday, May 14, 2011 in Charleston, W.Va. West Virginia voters head to the polls for the fourth time in 12 months to nomination a Republican and a Democrat candidate to run in October's special gubernatorial election. Photo: Jeff Gentner/AP Photo

Voting is Safe Across Appalachia. Here’s What to Do if Somebody Tries to Change That.

Voting is overwhelmingly safe throughout Appalachia, as it is across the country.  Despite reports showing right-wing, anti-democratic extremists are intimidating voters and election officials at higher rates and in more organized ways than in years past, those efforts are still relatively rare.  In West Virginia, for example, no one has […]

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Prepare for the Weirdest Election ‘Night’ Ever

Remember Florida’s presidential election recount in 2000, with the hanging chads, the magnifying glasses, and the weeks of courtroom battles about how to count the votes? There could be post-election vote-counting chaos again in the 2020 election — maybe in Florida, maybe some other state, or even in several states […]

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Progressive Wins in Virginia are Limited as Long as “Dillon’s Rule” is on the Books

This piece was originally published in Scalawag, which amplifies the voices of activists, artists and writers reckoning with the South. You can read the original article here. Last week’s elections delivered an overwhelming victory for progressives in Virginia, where Democrats solidified a majority in the General Assembly and candidates in local […]

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Analysis: Rural Voters Contributed to Kentucky Democrat’s Victory

Democrat Andy Beshear made gains in rural counties, compared to the 2015 gubernatorial race. While Republican Matt Bevin still won the rural vote, his margin was slimmer, contributing to Beshear’s 5,000-vote margin of victory. Kentucky’s Democratic Governor-elect Andy Beshear built big leads with voters in the state’s largest cities, but […]

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Where the Vote Shifted in Kentucky from 2015 to 2019

Andy Beshear’s lead in the Kentucky gubernatorial race came largely from cities and suburbs. But a shift toward the Democratic candidate occurred across the state, compared to the 2015 governor’s election. This time, it really was the cities and suburbs. The television maps of Kentucky’s vote Tuesday night appeared to […]

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Election Results: Off-year Democratic Wins See Seed Change in KY, VA

Heading into Tuesday’s off-year elections in a handful of Appalachian states– Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi notably among them– important races for governor and state legislative seats were being posited as an early referendum on the White House.  President Trump spent the days leading up to the race rallying in Kentucky and Mississippi for […]

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