Voting 2014: Stories from Iowa
In this year’s midterm election, thousands of Iowans could not vote because of past criminal convictions, a burden that disproportionately falls on the state’s African American population.
Expert Brief
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Outside Spending and Dark Money in Toss-Up Senate Races: Post-Election Update
Winning candidates in 2014’s competitive Senate races were overwhelmingly backed by “dark money” groups that conceal their donors, according to a new post-election analysis by the Brennan Center. -
Outside Spending and Dark Money in Toss-Up Senate Races: Pre-Election Update
The latest analysis of outside spending in the 11 'toss-up’ Senate races found $328 million in nonparty outside expenditures, significantly more than in 2012, and record-breaking outside spending in North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa. -
Outside Spending and Dark Money in Toss-Up Senate Races
These competitive races have attracted the greatest amount of outside spending and reveal significant trends in the influence of money in politics. -
Obstruction of the Senate and the Future of Rules Reform on Nominations
With mid-term elections fast approaching, the Senate should undertake two common-sense reforms to return judicial and executive branch nominees back to historical norms, where obstruction was the exception, not the rule. -
Election Spending 2014: Nine Toss-Up Senate Races
With control of the Senate at stake during this year’s midterm elections, outside spending is soaring in the most competitive races. This report identifies troubling trends on the powerful role anonymous money is playing in this year’s elections. -
Paying for Your Time: How Charging Inmates Fees Behind Bars May Violate the Excessive Fines Clause
Lauren-Brooke Eisen looks at the historical and present day practice of prisons charging inmates fees for costs related to their incarceration, including related case law. -
Dark Money Groups Dominate Independent Spending in House Toss-Up Races
A new Brennan Center analysis finds that a majority of spending in this election cycle’s most competitive House districts comes from dark money sources and single-candidate super PACs. -
'Shelby County': One Year Later
Our new paper details the controversial election changes that have been made since last year’s Shelby County ruling weakened a core provision of the Voting Rights Act. -
The State of Voting in 2014
In advance of this crucial midterm election, this report details new voting restrictions put in place over the past few years, laws in place for the first time in 2014, and major lawsuits that could affect this year’s elections. See all our 2014 voting resources.
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