Elections

Free and fair elections are an essential pillar of democracy around the world. However, the validity of elections are often threatened by the state or individuals introducing barriers to voting, including violence, and political or financial corruption.

In North Carolina, an Attempt to Overturn a State Supreme Court Election

The losing candidate for a seat on the high court is trying to have more than 60,000 valid votes thrown out.

In a dispute that is attracting national attention, Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court and judge on the state intermediate court, is seeking to invalidate more than 60,000 votes and overturn the electoral win of his opponent, Justice Allison Riggs.

The dispute stems from November’s state supreme court election, which Griffin lost by just 734 votes. The crux of Griffin’s argument is a claim that the state board of elections has been breaking state election law for decades by following an incorrect process for registering voters, including failing to require voters to provide a driver’s license or social security information and wrongfully allowing certain overseas and absentee ballots to be submitted without photo identification.

Meet the New Feminists in Congress Who Are Fighting Back

The progressive women newly elected and sworn into office—including three non-incumbent senators and 16 representatives—offer a glimmer of “bright hope” as the country enters a second Trump administration.

All of these women know that they’re entering a complicated political landscape, one that’s heavily partisan and disheartening to many of their constituents. They’re also experienced and driven, ready to work across the aisle as necessary while remaining dedicated to important causes, from protecting abortion rights and supporting the LGBTQ+ community to advocating for gun control, judicial reform, affordable healthcare and public education. These women come from all walks of life, sectors of the workforce and backgrounds. Some worked retail or food service jobs to pay their way through school. Others have been lifelong public servants or dedicated themselves to volunteering. They’ve been working physicians, engineers, attorneys, climate change activists, CIA analysts, mayors, state representatives and senators, education advocates, executive directors of nonprofits and small-business owners. They are Black, white, Latina and Middle Eastern. Some are proud members of the LGBTQ+ community. Many are from working-class backgrounds. Some are mothers and even grandmothers. Several are first-generation college graduates or the children of immigrants.

The Empire Strikes Back: Trump and His Oligarchs Return to the White House

What if many of the working and middle-class men who voted for Trump were misled into thinking that feminists and racial justice advocates were their antagonists, instead of the denizens of what David Graham referred to in The Atlantic as a new “Gilded Age,” who were seated right behind Trump at his second inaugural?

To use a Star Wars analogy: What if many of the average men who supported Trump fancied themselves members of the Rebel Alliance, but one day came to understand they were actually working for the Empire?

Democrats don’t need to convert the MAGA faithful. I’m convinced that millions of men and young men who voted for Trump have not gone that far down the rabbit hole of hero-worship, conspiracy and delusion. That’s the source of my defiant hope.

‘We’re Still in an Anti-Vax Era’: Dr. Fauci on Battling Anti-Science Sentiment in a Divided America

Before COVID-19, it was rare for an immunologist to become a household name. But in 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci—then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—quickly became one of the U.S.’ most recognizable symbols of the fight against the pandemic. He was the face of the “Stop the Spread” campaign, urging people to get the vaccine (which some affectionately dubbed the “Fauci ouchie”), and was the subject of a documentary film in 2021.

In Ms.’ first On the Issues podcast episode of 2025, Fauci joined host and Ms. Studios executive producer Michele Goodwin to talk about his time fighting vaccine misinformation, his hopes for the future and how his life changed in the public spotlight during COVID-19, including the toll that the often-troubling attention took on his family.

N.C. Democrats Rally for Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs After Opponent Jefferson Griffin Denies Her Win

Republicans are once again denying election results after a defeat, subverting democracy to try to hold onto power.

This November, abortion-rights voters in North Carolina hoped to reelect Supreme Court justice Allison Riggs. She ran against Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin, who ruled in a case in 2023 that life begins at conception. Griffin and other Republicans are fighting to have more than 60,000 ballots thrown out, hoping that challenging thousands of voter registrations will help him gain the Supreme Court seat.

Close the Gender Giving Gap: Women Need More Charitable Support in Wake of the Election

Despite widespread recognition of gender-based violence, U.S. voters elected a president who a jury held accountable for sexual abuse and who openly disparages women—at once sending a chilling message to survivors and emboldening their abusers. Just days after the election, we heard from a survivor who reported that her boyfriend told her he could do […]

Georgia’s Elections Reveal Regression of Democracy and Gender Equity. The Country’s First Female President Is Fighting Back.

From Latin America to Eastern Europe, election results have signaled the global rise of right-wing authoritarianism and a growing backlash against women’s inclusion in politics. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in Georgia, a small yet strategically significant country bridging Europe and Asia.

On Oct. 27, Georgia held pivotal parliamentary elections that many hoped would realign the nation with its pro-European and democratic aspirations. However, the ruling Georgian Dream party, known for its anti-Western rhetoric and led by an oligarch and the country’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, retained power through disputed elections. This occurred despite over 70 percent of the population supporting EU and NATO integration.

It’s Not the Economy, Stupid

This election is an unfortunate macrocosm of what Black women experience each day across industries: a fundamental lack of trust to lead.

It is long past time for us to face the fact that racism—specifically anti-Blackness—and sexism are at the base of the many other reasons Harris was unable to triumph in this election.

The Public Is Demanding Paid Sick Time. It’s Time for Lawmakers to Pay Attention.

There was a promising development in the 2024 election that should not be overlooked: By large and decisive margins, voters in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska all voted yes to enacting new paid sick time laws in each state. Now, 3 million more U.S. workers have the legal right to paid sick time and will no longer need to make the impossible choice between sacrificing a paycheck and going to work or sending a child to school sick.

With these ballot wins, 19 states, as well as over a dozen localities, have now embraced paid sick time as a fundamental workplace right—and that is worth celebrating. But access to such a vital protection shouldn’t depend on luck or zip code. Tens of millions of workers are still being left behind. If Congress wants to address widespread concerns about economic hardship and rising costs of living, they can listen to voters and tangibly improve the well-being of working families everywhere by passing the federal Healthy Families Act.