Where You Eat, Shop, Have Fun Might Determine What Political Ads You See on Social Media

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Democrats exclude people who eat at Cracker Barrel, a chain of restaurants with a Southern country theme. Republicans filter out voters who shop at Whole Foods Market, a supermarket chain with a focus on natural and organic foods. These are two examples of how political campaigns are using people’s eating, shopping and entertainment preferences in hopes of reaching the online audience that’s most receptive to their political message, according to an Axios analysis of political ad data at Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram. Axios says it analyzed more than 93,000 targeting inputs for paid political ads on Facebook andmore

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US Election Terms Explained

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Ballot measures Apart from national, statewide and local races, many states have measures on the ballot, which are issues or questions that voters are asked to decide. Topics of this year’s ballot measures include marijuana, voting-related policies and abortion, the latter of which is appearing on ballots in six states. The increase in abortion-related measures follows this year’s Supreme Court decision overturning a national right to an abortion, which gave states the final power to set most abortion laws. Call a winner News outlets often “call” a winner before every ballot is counted and before officials announce final results. Thismore

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US House Committee Gives Trump Until Next Week to Produce Documents

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The House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump said Friday it had given the former president until next week to begin producing documents requested under a subpoena.  The January 6 committee announced on October 21 that it had sent a subpoena to Trump requiring documents to be submitted by November 4 and for him to appear for deposition testimony beginning on or about November 14.  “We have received correspondence from the former president and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee’s subpoena,” the House Select Committee’s chairperson,more

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US Security Officials Warn Lone Actors Likely the Biggest Election Threat

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U.S. officials charged with helping to secure the upcoming midterm elections fear the most dangerous and most likely threats may be difficult or impossible to detect in advance, and that the risk of violence will only escalate once the polls close. The assessment, based on intelligence from multiple agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Counterterrorism Center, has been shared in recent weeks with state and local law enforcement agencies, lending increased urgency to their efforts to secure the vote. Parts of the assessment also have been shared publicly, including by themore

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This Election Day, Millions of Americans Won’t Be Voting in English

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This Election Day, more than 80 million Americans will have the option to vote in a language other than English, thanks to a federal provision that guarantees language assistance in the voting process for certain groups of people. “The idea was to take groups that were historically excluded from the electoral process, and the mission was to make it more accessible for some of those groups,” says Gabe Osterhout, a research associate at the Idaho Policy Institute at Boise State University. The original Voting Rights Act of 1965 focused primarily on the rights of African Americans in the South. Themore

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Rally Urges US Midterm Voting Connected to Christianity

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Laura Brown came more than 1,800 kilometers from Gulfport, Mississippi, to attend the ReAwaken America Tour in Manheim, Pennsylvania. She carried a shofar, a musical instrument used in Jewish religious ceremonies. But this was no Jewish event. She raised the long curved horn to her mouth, took a deep breath, and blew the ancient horn to signal a start to the second day of the Christian, mainly white, mainly Republican rally that is the bedrock of the Christian Nationalism movement in the United States. About 5,000 people filled seats in a sports complex for two days of politically conservative speakers.more

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Rally Urges Voting Connected to Christianity

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The founding of the United States dictates a separation between church and state. But some politicians and other leaders are promoting the idea of connecting them — giving Americans a country run with morals based on Christianity. VOA’s senior Washington correspondent Carolyn Presutti brings us the contentious debate. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam and Mary Cieslak Video editor: Mary Cieslak …

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How US Voting Laws Have Changed Since 2020

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If you’re a registered voter in the Western U.S. state of Nevada, you’d have received a mail-in ballot this year, whether you asked for one or not. That’s thanks to a new law that the state enacted last year as part of a broader effort to make it easier for people to vote. But if you’re a voter in the Southwestern state of Texas, that option is not available to you. Indeed, a 2021 Texas law makes it a crime for election officials to automatically send mail-in ballots to voters. The two laws epitomize the divergent paths that U.S. statesmore

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Analysts Don’t Expect Significant Changes in Immigration Policy After the Midterms

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Despite the record influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and a shortage of workers in the United States, experts believe immigration policy will remain unchanged after the midterm elections. Some experts say that if Republicans take control of Congress, President Joe Biden likely will turn to the administrative process to accomplish any immigration changes.   Republicans have a “very clear” position on immigration, Neeraj Kaushal, a social policy professor at Columbia University, told VOA. “They want to restrict immigration,” said Kaushal, who is also an expert and researcher on immigration policy.   Democrats, on the other hand, are less focused whenmore

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Midterm Elections Usually Favor the Opposition, But Will 2022 Buck History?

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History suggests the Democratic Party’s narrow control of both houses of Congress — the Senate and House of Representatives — could end after the midterm elections in November.   But the conservative Supreme Court ‘s unpopular decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion for women could be the catalyst that bucks history.  “Historically, the president’s political party has almost always lost seats in Congress in the midterm elections,” says Mark Rozell, dean and professor of policy and government at George Mason University in Virginia. “So, if this were just a normal, ordinary midterm election year, we would expect themore

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Biden Implores Voters to Save Democracy From Lies, Violence

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After weeks of reassuring talk about America’s economy and inflation, President Joe Biden turned Wednesday night to a darker, more urgent message, warning in the final days ahead of midterm election voting that democracy itself is under threat from former President Donald Trump’s election-denying lies and the violence he said they inspire.  Pointing in particular to the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, he said that Trump’s false claims about a stolen election have “fueled the dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.”  Six days before the elections, Biden said, “As I standmore

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Officials Fear Disinformation Could Spark US Election Violence

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With just one week to go until the U.S. midterm elections, a key senior U.S. official is expressing concerns that misinformation, or influence operations by U.S. adversaries, could ignite violence at the polls. For weeks, top officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security have said they have found no traces of specific or credible threats to the November 8 vote. But increasingly officials have voiced fears about the heightened domestic political tensions that have gripped much of the country and about how that could play out on Election Day when mixed with false ormore

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Despite Huge Redistricting Advantage, Republicans Play it Safe

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As the midterms approach, the Republican Party is facing a tougher than expected fight from the Democrats for control of the House of Representatives despite having had a rare opportunity to redraw the political map in their favor. “People thought, ‘Well, Democrats are going to get shellacked in redistricting, and, you know, they more or less managed to fight to a draw,’” says Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. Though Republicans are still likely to win control of the House, he said. Every 10 years, congressional districts are redrawn to reflect population changes and ensure that eachmore

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Majority of Americans Want Supreme Court Reform, Here’s How it Could Work

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Two-thirds of Americans want court reform in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned a half-century of abortion rights that were guaranteed under the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. “We’re in somewhat uncharted territory here,” says Carolyn Shapiro, professor of law at ITT Chicago-Kent College of Law. “For the first time in a very long time, maybe ever, there is increasing public appetite for making changes to the court, like adding seats and/or imposing term limits.” Public approval of the U.S. Supreme Court hit a new low last month, withmore

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US Politicians Condemn Political Violence Ahead of Tense Midterm Vote

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Political violence has cast a pall over the U.S. midterm vote, with poll workers expecting high emotions at election venues and a recent, violent home invasion targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. President Joe Biden and other top politicians have condemned the attack, which badly wounded Pelosi’s husband, Paul, and they are calling for an end to political violence as the election looms on Nov. 8. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington. …

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As Midterms Near, Political Ads Seize on Voters’ Fears about Crime

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Crime statistics are notoriously hard to interpret. They’re often incomplete, out of date and ambiguous. But that hasn’t stopped candidates running in the midterms this year from cherry-picking data to score political points. Take a Republican attack ad against Josh Riley, a Democrat running for a competitive congressional seat in upstate New York. The ad, sponsored by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, cites a New York Post article about “violent crime surging in New York.” But the June 22 article is about rising violent crime in New York City — and five other U.S. cities — notmore

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Poll Workers Train for Conflict: ‘A Little Nervous? I Am.’

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Milwaukee’s top election official surveyed about 20 poll workers gathered in a classroom in a city building stuffed with election supplies, then spoke frankly about the tense environment they may face next week when the city expects more people watching their work than ever before. “So who is worried about observer disruptions?” Claire Woodall-Vogg, head of the Milwaukee Election Commission, asked the group. “Who has read things or heard things on the news, and you’re a little nervous? I am. I’ll raise my hand,” she said, smiling. A few of the workers raised their hands, too. They’re not alone inmore

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With US Midterm Vote, Massachusetts Cambodians Flex Local Power

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For Cambodian American residents of Lowell, Massachusetts, the upcoming midterm vote is chance to voice concerns on a list of local concerns familiar throughout the U.S. — potholes, schools and housing costs. Sreang Heng, the Cambodia-born owner of Heng Heng Auto Repair near Lowell’s Koumantzelis Park-Roberto Clemente Baseball Field, said potholes are taking a toll on his customers’ vehicles, which come to him with damaged tires and tie rods. While this means more work for auto repair shops like his, he’d rather not have it because of the social cost, especially to those who cannot afford to make all themore

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