In-depth coverage of voter suppression efforts nationwide from Brentin Mock and Aura Bogado, in partnership with Colorlines.com.
Brentin Mock is a New Orleans–based journalist who serves as lead reporter on Voting Rights Watch, covering the challenges presented by new voter ID laws, suppression of voter registration drives, and other attempts to limit electoral power of people of color. In his previous position as senior editor at The Loop 21, Brentin also covered electoral politics with a significant amount of reporting on voter ID issues.
In New Orleans, Brentin also works as web editor for the online, citizen-journalist driven blogsite Bridge the Gulf and helped launch the New Orleans online investigative news site The Lens. He previously worked at The American Prospect as a reporter and blogger covering environmental justice issues through a fellowship awarded by the Metcalf Institute for Environmental Reporting. Brentin also served on the staff of the national magazine Intelligence Report, published by Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating hate groups and anti-immigrant nativist extremists.
Brentin’s professional career began in his native city of Pittsburgh, working as managing editor of the African-American community newspaper Renaissance News before joining the staff of the alternative newsweekly Pittsburgh City Paper. His work has been published in GOOD, the Root, the Daily Beast, Newsweek.com, the Grio, The Atlantic, Next American City, Truthout.org, Alternet, Vibe.com, XXL, The Source and Religion Dispatches.
Follow Brentin at @bmockaveli.
Aura Bogado is the community journalism coordinator and blogger for Voting Rights Watch 2012. Aura has reported in Spanish and English from Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and the United States. Her work has been published in Mother Jones, Newsweek Argentina, AlterNet, and The Huffington Post. With the support of the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, she conducted an in-depth examination on the consequences of immigration enforcement by local police in Arizona.
Aura has worked as a national host and producer for the Pacifica Radio network. While there, she also coordinated a media literacy and training program for youth of color in Los Angeles with a grant from the California Technology Foundation. She was a founding member of 33+1/3 Books Collective, an independent bookstore and gallery in Los Angeles. In 2006, City Lights Books published The Other Campaign, which featured her exclusive interview with Subcomandante Marcos, his first in five years.
She earned her B.A. from Yale University, majoring in American Studies. An immigrant from South America of indigenous (Guarani) decent, she is currently based in New York, and plays son jarocho music in her spare time.
Follow Aura at @zapallita.
It’s too early to tell, but here’s a sampling of anecdotal reports from our community journalists spread out around the country that are unconfirmed but offer a sense of the problem.
Spanish-speaking voters at several polling places in North Philly have been left without interpreters.
Forty-six people in Miami-Dade County have had their votes challenged.
Colorado’s Latino voters could well decide this election—but some may have to overcome harassment to cast their ballots.
Around the country, rumors are popping up that straight-ticket ballots won't be counted. Unless you're voting in North Carolina, those rumors are false.
A Tampa group has filed dozens of last-minute voter challenges, in a troubling indication of ramped up suppression efforts. Meanwhile, as record turnout forced long lines, poll watchers have cried foul over bottled water.
There are plenty more threats to the vote than there are days left to cast your ballot.
For some people of color, voting in 2012 may be a matter of life and death.
For two years, Florida’s Tea Party Republicans have been working to undo the huge turnout of black voters on the Sunday before Election Day. It didn’t work.
With a week-and-a-half left until Election Day, voter suppression schemes slam swing states.