Kevin Morris
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kevintmorris.bsky.social
Kevin Morris
@kevintmorris.bsky.social
17K followers 740 following 300 posts
Senior Research Fellow and Voting Policy Scholar at @BrennanCenter.org. Democracy is good, prisons are bad. Usually on a bike, beach, or backpacking trip.
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Kevin Morris @kevintmorris.bsky.social · 13d
It's official: An American Problem (our book on the Voting Rights Act, preclearance, and the effects of Shelby County) will be coming out next year with Princeton University Press. As the VRA faces continued threats, we're hopeful it will offer insight into why the it's is so vitally important
An American Problem: The States, the Courts, and Voting Rights Michael G. Miller Kevin T. Morris Contents List of Tables List of Figures Introduction 1 I The Voting Rights Act: A Legal and Political History 15 1 Time of Justice: The Long Rise of the VRA 17 2 More Elaborate Measures: The VRA Ascends 57 3 Vestiges of Discrimination: How Was Preclearance Utilized? 89 4 Chops on the Log: The End of Preclearance 117 II Voting Rights Since Shelby County 161 5 Similar Maneuvers: The Turnout Gap 163 6 Unlawful Dilution: Districting 193 7 First Generation Barriers: Voter List Maintenance 231 8 Almost Surgical Precision: Voter ID 265 9 Purity of the Ballot Box: Mail Voting 303 The Soul of America: Epilogue 335 End Notes 357 Bibliography 395
kevintmorris.bsky.social
A lot of news today, but don't miss the two big threats-to-democracy ones:

1. SCOTUS will decide whether states can count ballots post marked by, but received after, election day. Given vote-mode polarization in recent years, this could matter a lot
Figure showing that, starting in 2020, voters of color became more likely than white voters to cast their ballots by mail
November 10, 2025 at 11:49 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
For those of you who have published books in the last few years who LIKE their cover art: How did you go about that process??
November 10, 2025 at 7:52 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
"Our system of federalism means states should be free to draw their districts and run their elections as they best see fit."

"Wait no not like that."
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 19h
The Supreme Court did grant review of one case today, Watson v. Republican National Committee, and it's a big one over state laws allowing the counting of ballots cast by Election Day but received after Election Day.

Here's the docket: www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docke...

And question presented:
QUESTION PRESENTED The federal election-day statutes-2 U.S.C. § 7, 2 U.S.C. § 1, and 3 U.S.C. § 1-set the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in certain years as the "election" day for federal offices. Like all other States, Mississippi requires that ballots for federal offices be cast-marked and submitted to election officials—by that day. And like most other States, Mississippi allows some of those timely cast ballots (mail-in absentee ballots, in Mississippi's case) to be counted if they are received by election officials a short time after election day (in Mississippi, within 5 business days after election day). Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-637(1)(a). In the decision below, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal election-day statutes require that ballots be both cast by voters and received by election officials by election day and thus preempt Mississippi's law. The question presented is whether the federal election-day statutes preempt a state law that allows ballots that are cast by federal election day to be received by election officials after that day.
November 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
chrisgeidner.bsky.social
The Supreme Court did grant review of one case today, Watson v. Republican National Committee, and it's a big one over state laws allowing the counting of ballots cast by Election Day but received after Election Day.

Here's the docket: www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docke...

And question presented:
QUESTION PRESENTED The federal election-day statutes-2 U.S.C. § 7, 2 U.S.C. § 1, and 3 U.S.C. § 1-set the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in certain years as the "election" day for federal offices. Like all other States, Mississippi requires that ballots for federal offices be cast-marked and submitted to election officials—by that day. And like most other States, Mississippi allows some of those timely cast ballots (mail-in absentee ballots, in Mississippi's case) to be counted if they are received by election officials a short time after election day (in Mississippi, within 5 business days after election day). Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-637(1)(a). In the decision below, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal election-day statutes require that ballots be both cast by voters and received by election officials by election day and thus preempt Mississippi's law. The question presented is whether the federal election-day statutes preempt a state law that allows ballots that are cast by federal election day to be received by election officials after that day.
November 10, 2025 at 2:46 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Will report back
November 10, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
mjsdc.bsky.social
New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
DAVIS, KIM V. ERMOLD, DAVID, ET AL. The motion of Foundation for Moral Law for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae out of time is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
debbiejsr.bsky.social
Happy to share that my new book with Jeff Berry and Jim Glaser is now available from @uchicagopress.bsky.social! (preorder elsewhere til 12/2, but available now through Chicago)
🧵
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Everyday Democracy
How the everyday habits and attitudes of ordinary liberals and conservatives shape the health of American democracy. In Everyday Democracy, Jeffrey M. Berry, James M. Glaser, and Deborah J. Schildkrau...
press.uchicago.edu
October 28, 2025 at 11:09 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Something else that's interesting, at least in Virginia: We don't see big swings left in places where turnout bottomed out last year, relative to 2020. In other words: These probably aren't just a bunch of Democrats who sat out last fall that pushed things left this week.
November 7, 2025 at 7:10 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
The idea that deadnaming someone "expresses a message on a matter of pressing public concern" has to be among the most willfully ignorant and hateful things I have read this week
chrisgeidner.bsky.social Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 4d
BREAKING: The Sixth Circuit, in a 10-7 en banc decision, holds that an Ohio school district's anti-bullying policy that requires students to use children's preferred pronouns is likely unconstitutional on these facts.

Judge Murphy, a Trump appointee, writes the court's decision.
OPINION MURPHY, Circuit Judge. An Ohio public school district bars its students from referring to transgender and nonbinary classmates using the pronouns that match their biological sex if the classmates prefer to go by different pronouns. The plaintiff in this case has parent and student members who believe that a person's sex is immutable. The members want to express this view by using biological pronouns. And they believe that they would convey a falsehood —that a person's gender is fluid—if they use preferred pronouns. So the plaintiff challenged the school district's speech ban on behalf of its members under the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause. This case about pronouns pits two important interests against each other. On the one hand, the school district has prohibited speech (biological pronouns) that expresses a message on a matter of pressing public concern. And because the district requires other speech (preferred pronouns) that expresses a competing view, it has discriminated based on its students' viewpoints. Its approach thus raises serious free-speech concerns. On the other hand, the school district rightly responds that it has a duty to protect all students- including transgender and nonbinary students— from bullying and harassment. And this protection, while necessarily restricting speech, does not violate the Free Speech Clause. So which of these competing concerns should prevail in this case? The Supreme Court's cases provide a clear answer. A school district may not restrict personal speech on matters of public concern unless the speech would "materially and substantially disrupt" school activities or infringe the legal "rights of others" in the school community. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 513 (1969). In this case's current posture, the school district has fallen far short of meeting this demanding standard. It introduced no evidence that the use of biological pronouns would disrupt school functions or qualify as harassment under Ohio law. Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or offensive just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights. The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view. We thus reverse and remand Case: 23-3630 Document: 253-2 Filed: 11/06/2025 Page: 4 No. 23-3630 Defending Educ. v. Olentangy Loc. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ., et al. Page 4 for the entry of an appropriately tailored preliminary injunction barring the district from punishing students for the commonplace use of biological pronouns. Yet nothing we say here forecloses the district from enforcing its anti-harassment policies against the abuse of transgender students just as it enforces those policies against the abuse of all other students.
November 7, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
hadley.nz
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....

genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
pgourevitch.bsky.social
hear hear

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/o...
Opinion | More Democrats Need to Follow Pelosi’s Example and Retire
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:12 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
One thing I'm seeing over and over again is that leftward-shifts aren't only being driven by places with sky-high turnout; places with lower turnout also shifted left around the same amount, implying a decent amount of voters changing their minds
November 6, 2025 at 11:13 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Don't cut people's benefits if you want them to vote for you:
November 6, 2025 at 9:57 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
I have committed more ecological inference crimes in the past 48 hours than in the rest of my life combined
November 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Don't fire workers if you want them to vote for you:
November 6, 2025 at 9:30 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
I've been posting these ad hoc, but I figure it would be helpful to pull together these relationships we're seeing in shifts in votes in Latino-heavy areas. Tho we don't know yet whether these are _individuals changing_ how they vote or _different participants_, there's a lot to learn...
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Let's keep a good thing going. What's up, Virginia House districts?
November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Here's Bergen County. Clearly -- at the very, very least in New Jersey -- there is substantial evidence that the Republican Party failed to maintain partisan shifts among Latinos
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Everyone knows it's easy to *indict* a ham sandwich. The tough part has always been landing the conviction
November 5, 2025 at 10:29 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Here's Bergen County. Clearly -- at the very, very least in New Jersey -- there is substantial evidence that the Republican Party failed to maintain partisan shifts among Latinos
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Lotta places failing the "Jurisdictions stop posting election results in PDFs challenge" this year
November 6, 2025 at 4:55 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Passaic County, NJ, precinct-level results. A huge shift toward the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, relative to 2024, in Latino-dominant precincts
November 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Kevin Morris
kevintmorris.bsky.social
This holds, more generally, across nonwhite precincts as a whole. The more racially diverse a precinct Biden-Trump precinct was, the more they shifted back toward the Democrat this week:
November 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
kevintmorris.bsky.social
Even in NYC we see evidence of Latinos swinging back. These are the precincts that Biden won in 2020 but flipped to Trump in 2024. The Latino precincts moved back toward the Democratic candidate in 2025!
November 6, 2025 at 3:26 PM