How I Became a One-Way Pen Pal for Democracy

I Write Postcards to Try to Reform Ballot Scofflaws. All the While Wondering, Who Are These People Anyway?

Oh, you beautiful souls in Battle Creek, Michigan: the teacher, the pipelayer, the barista, the big-hearted tech at the vet’s office checking in a scared family’s pug. How I wish you would stop being an infrequent participant in our democracy and take the time to vote in the upcoming election.

Scratch that. I’m off script.

I became a one-way pen pal for democracy in 2018, writing letters and postcards to strangers in the lead-up to that year’s midterm elections.

I had spent the months before marching for women, science, immigrants, and Muslims. …

by Melissa Wall | September 4, 2024

What It’s Like to Experience the U.S. Election From Prison

We Can’t Vote on Politicians’ Promises or Policies—Even Though They Will Shape Nearly Every Aspect of Our Realities

by Phillip Vance Smith, II | August 19, 2024

In a small conference room nestled inside a secure red-brick building, I met with 11 fellow staff members of the Nash News, a prison newspaper in North Carolina. It was …

A tight crowd of men and women, some sitting down, some standing. Political banners and pictures are seen above the people.

In Dhaka, the Roadblocks to Democracy Are Roadblocks

As the Election Looms in Bangladesh, Blockades Are More Than a Metaphor for the Obstacles Facing Voters

by SAYKOT KABIR SHAYOK | January 4, 2024

It’s election season in Bangladesh—the roads are closed, vehicles are burning, and the threat of violence is close.

As I write these sentences, the country’s chief opposition party—the Bangladesh Nationalist Party …

2024 Will Be the Biggest Election Year in World History

And That’s Not Good News for Democracy

by Joe Mathews | January 2, 2024

2024 will be the biggest election year in history. Some 4.2 billion people, or more than half of humanity, live in the 76 countries that are scheduled to …

The Case for Taking Trump Off the Ballot

Call it the ‘Democratic Self-Defense Exception’—Blocking Candidates Who Undermine the Constitution Is Our Responsibility

by Joe Mathews | December 19, 2023

I was in favor of keeping Donald Trump’s name on the presidential ballot in California.

Until I went to Berlin this fall.

At a Saturday conference on German election law—if you haven’t …

Maya Angelou recites her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning," written for the inaugural, during the presidential inauguration on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 1993. She wears a black coat and is looking down at the podium.

How Is a Poem Like a Political Campaign?

Whether You’re Knocking on Doors or Knocking out Verse, You’re Dealing in Hope, Uncertainty, and the Art of Persuasion

by Derek Mong | January 17, 2023

To knock on a door and talk politics with a neighbor. To crack open a book and hear a new voice. To canvass a side street, zig-zagging between houses. To …

In Praise of the Postcard

A Seemingly Obsolete Technology Invites Us to Ruminate on the Possibilities of the Past and the Future

The Postcards That Captured America’s Love for the Open Road

From Mid-Century Until Today, “Greetings From” Postcards Have Combined a ‘Fantastical View’ of the Country With Car Culture Obsession

Are California Elections a Triumph of Democracy—or a Defeat?

The Golden State Keeps Making It Easier to Vote, and Harder to Understand What to Vote For

A Letter From Taiwan: Where Democracy Has Become a Rollercoaster

A Voting Activist on the Rocky Ride Toward Increased Citizen Participation

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