Why It May Be Illegal to Instagram Your Ballot
by Lois Beckett Tuesday, Nov. 6, 1:42 p.m. This post has been updated. Proud voters are already posting photos of their ballots on Instagram—sometimes with the names of their chosen candidates filled...
View ArticleWelcome to Election Day: Seven Things That Could Go Wrong (or Already Have)
by Suevon Lee Update: We've compiled reports that offer a look at how Election Day has gone thus far. Nov. 6: This post has been corrected. Get ready. Here are all the things that could go wrong (or...
View ArticleObama’s Microtargeting ‘Nuclear Codes’
by Lois Beckett Time magazine's Michael Scherer talked with a group of Obama campaign advisers this past weekend, and provided an inside look at some of the data and targeting tactics behind the...
View ArticleCheck ‘Em Out: Donations to Dark Money Group Revealed
by Kim Barker, ProPublica, and Emma Schwartz, Frontline Last week, when a Montana district judge ordered the release of its bank records, Western Tradition Partnership became the first modern dark...
View ArticleWhat Effect, If Any, Did Voter ID Laws Have on the Election?
by Suevon Lee Elaine Schmottlach has been a ballot clerk in the small southeastern New Hampshire town of Nottingham – population, 4,785 – for the last 25 years. Yet when it came time for her to vote...
View ArticleWhy Is Arizona Still Counting Votes?
by Suevon Lee It’s been two weeks since Election Day, but it’s not all over in Arizona. Thousands of early and provisional ballots remain uncounted. These votes aren’t actually expected to impact any...
View ArticleEverything We Know (So Far) About Obama’s Big Data Tactics
by Lois Beckett This post is being kept up-to-date. It was first published on Nov. 13. For the past nine months, we’ve been following how political campaigns use data about voters to target them in...
View ArticleAre Voter ID Laws Here to Stay?
by Suevon Lee Voter ID laws were one of the most contentious issues of the past election season. (Here is everything you need to know about the laws.) Proponents insisted IDs should be required at...
View ArticleKarl Rove’s Dark Money Group Promised IRS It Would Spend ‘Limited’ Money on...
by Kim Barker In a confidential 2010 filing, Crossroads GPS — the dark money group that spent more than $70 million from anonymous donors on the 2012 election — told the Internal Revenue Service that...
View ArticleHow Much Did Sheldon Adelson Really Spend on Campaign 2012?
by Theodoric Meyer Dec. 21: This post has been corrected. Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and emblem of the Citizens United-era of campaign finance, spent gobs of money on the 2012...
View ArticleIn Montana, Dark Money Helped Democrats Hold a Key Senate Seat
by Kim Barker Dec. 27: This post has been corrected. In the waning days of Montana's hotly contested Senate race, a small outfit called Montana Hunters and Anglers, launched by liberal activists,...
View ArticleControversial Dark Money Group Among Five That Told IRS They Would Stay Out...
by Kim Barker Jan. 4: This post has been updated. Five conservative dark money groups active in 2012 elections previously told tax regulators that they would not engage in politics, filings obtained...
View ArticleIn Minnesota, Democratic Grandmas Gather Data About Their Neighbors
by Lois Beckett In Minnesota, Democratic volunteers scour their local newspapers each morning for letters to the editor with a political slant. They pay attention to the names of callers on radio...
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Four Graphs That Show How Democrats Predict Your Political Beliefs
by Lois Beckett We wrote last week about Democratic volunteers in Minnesota who feed information about their neighbors into the party’s voter database. The data points they collect — like the...
View ArticleThe Best Reporting on Redistricting Shenanigans (#MuckReads)
by Christie Thompson and Theodoric Meyer Republicans in the Virginia Senate made headlines Jan. 20 when they rammed through legislation that would concentrate the state’s Democratic voters into fewer...
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