With the presidential election now in full swing—the next Republican debate is Wednesday Sept. 16—the Ms. Blog is excited to bring you a series presented in conjunction with Presidential Gender Watch 2016, a project of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and the Center for American Women and Politics. They’ll be tracking, analyzing and illuminating gender dynamics during election season—so […]
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.
Why We Vote (And You Should, Too!)
Anita Little, associate editor When I was younger, I viewed the idea of voting in elections with irreverence. What difference could my one vote make in the future of our country and its laws? Voting seemed to be a futile pursuit, an opiate to make the masses feel better about their irrelevance in the halls […]
Sleater-Kinney, Bad Brains, Black Flag — Rachel Maddow’s Midterm Playlist
The stress of midterm elections have you pulling out your hair? Don’t worry! The ingenious Rachel Maddow has curated a playlist of angry punk songs to help relieve some of that pent up midterm aggression. Courtesy of the Late Night With Seth Meyers show, Maddow has provided spot-on music selections, with each song dedicated to various aspects […]
Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Discriminatory Voter ID Law
Sorry, African Americans, Latinos, married or divorced women, poor people, college students, the disabled and the elderly living in Texas. You may live in the world’s greatest democracy, but your state just made it much harder for you to participate in it. On Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Texas permission to implement the strictest […]
Women May Decide the Toughest Senate Races
Political pollsters don’t always agree on the direction major races are headed. But there’s one thing polls have shown again and again this election season: Women could decide the biggest Senate races in the country. According to an analysis of polls from the National Journal, gender gaps—the measurable difference between how women and men vote—in the tightest Senate races, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, […]
Millennials: Don’t Get Shafted at the Polls!
Often characterized as apathetic and irrelevant, young people, especially college students, have usually been ignored come election season. However, this mythology was blown away in the 2008 and 2012 elections when young people proved to be a formidable force at the polls. Galvanized by a charismatic candidate who engaged with them, a sleeping giant had […]
We Heart: The #CosmoVotes Campaign
It’s been proven time and again that the gender gap can decide elections. In the 2012 presidential election, women voters, in favoring President Obama by 10 percentage points, helped usher him into his second term. If only men had voted that November, Mitt Romney would be president. Women wield considerable power in our nation’s electorate […]
Your Vote Is Your Voice
The following article appears in the Fall 2014 issue of Ms. Read more of our election coverage by getting a digital subscription to the magazine. Hardly a week goes by in Washington, D.C. that doesn’t include an announcement, panel discussion or report on women voters—how we think, how to win us, where we live and what we had for breakfast. […]
Indian Politicians Set Bait for Women’s Vote
“Why don’t they have general elections every year, even every six months ?” That’s Mohana being cheeky as she listens to the day’s news items being read out to her by a member of a nongovernmental organization in Bangalore, in south India. The women sitting with her, all slum dwellers and mostly illiterate—whose surnames represent […]
Historic All-Woman Race For Mayor of Paris
Four women, one seat. So far, the 2014 mayoral election in Paris is a single-sex contest. The two biggest parties have chosen their candidates: Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, of the center-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), and Anne Hidalgo of the Parti Socialiste (PS). Two other women are also widely expected to fight for the mayor […]