Author

Zachary Roth
Zachary Roth is the National Democracy Reporter for States Newsroom. He is a former national reporter at MSNBC, and the author of The Great Suppression: Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on Democracy (Crown, 2016). He has also written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Slate, Politico, and more.
How U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson helped derail a fight against election lies
By: Zachary Roth - November 27, 2023
Back in July, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. A federal court had recently granted a temporary injunction, in Missouri v. Biden, finding that the Biden administration had violated the First Amendment by coercing social media companies to remove content, related both to elections and the COVID-19 vaccine, that […]
States that send a mail ballot to every voter really do increase turnout, scholars find
By: Zachary Roth - October 15, 2023
Lately, a rough consensus has emerged among people who study the impact of voting policies: Though they often spark fierce partisan fighting, most changes to voting laws do little to affect overall turnout, much less election results. But one fast-growing reform appears to stand out as an exception. When every registered voter gets sent a […]
Not just Ohio: Biased language is the hot new tactic to thwart ballot measures
By: Zachary Roth - September 1, 2023
Abortion-rights supporters filed a lawsuit Monday against what they call “deceptive” ballot language produced by Ohio officials for the state’s closely-watched upcoming referendum on the issue. But it isn’t just the Buckeye State that’s lately seeing fierce battles over the once-obscure topic of ballot language. In recent weeks, officials in Missouri — where another abortion-rights […]