this weekend, we had a few dozen ppl sign up as new monthly subscribers at Bolts. a big surge for a time we weren't making a "formal" drive! it's so meaningful: for a nonprofit newsroom, this really help sustain & strengthen us! if you care to join: boltsmag.org/donate

New Mexico restored voting rights to 1000s of people w/ felonies last yr. But celebrations turned into "a year of frustration" as organizers discovered state officials had been wrongly denying ppl their right to vote for decades. My latest for Bolts boltsmag.org/voting-rights-…

NEW: My cheat sheet to Tuesday features more than 500 races up and down the ballot. Now we have it in PDF, printable form: Save it, print it, give it to your kids to color the electoral college, & use it your worksheet on Tuesday night. Find it here: boltsmag.org/whats-on-the-b…

From today thru 12/31, @Newsmatch will match your donations to Bolts. If you start a new monthly subscription, your first monthly gift is matched x12! That means more $$ for records, reporting trips, and fact checking 👏 boltsmag.org/donate-page/do…

Remember on Tuesday the many Americans who won’t be counted because local and/or state officials make voting difficult for them, or even impossible. Not to mention the millions who are outright disenfranchised. Quick thread of some Bolts stories I’ve done on this topic:

NEW: Monique Worrell has won back her job leading the Orlando prosecutor's office after Ron DeSantis removed her over her reform policies last year. In Tampa, however, Andrew Warren, who was also removed by DeSantis, lost his attempt at a comeback. boltsmag.org/tampa-orlando-…

RESULT: Ohioans have rejected redistricting reform. Issue 1 would have created an independent redistricting commission. I just wrote about the result, and where this leaves the advocates in the state who've been working to constrain gerrymandering: boltsmag.org/ohio-reject-re…

Federal elections are on everyone's minds, of course, and on mine. At Bolts, we of course do things a little differently & focus on local elections & stakes—so don't miss our team's dive into key places since Tuesday:

It appears Alabama's 3rd execution by nitrogen played out like the first two. Grayson "rocked his head, shook & pulled against the restraints," & lifted his legs off the gurney, acc the AP. After, the ADOC commissioner said the movements were "all show." theguardian.com/us-news/2024/n…

"A young man approached him to say he was excited about voting but that he didn’t know anything about Donald Trump or Kamala Harris." New must-read story from Alex Burness explores civic engagement and its limits inside the Flint jail: boltsmag.org/flint-michigan…

We have published the unfinished investigation of Arizona's system of capital punishment — the Governor scrapped it before it was completed — which found lethal injection to be "fundamentally unreliable, unworkable and unacceptably prone to errors.” azcentral.com/story/news/pol…

Michigan enacted legislation in October abolishing fines and fees for children. Prior to the reform, a teenager I spoke with had to stay on probation an extra two years and wasn't allowed to go to public school because she couldn't pay back $800. boltsmag.org/michigan-juven…