Voting Rights

On this week’s episode of The Legislature Today, we explore election reform and the price of insulin, and lawmakers in the House of Delegates have approved a bill that would reduce all personal income tax brackets by 10 percent.

On this West Virginia Morning, reporter Curtis Tate speaks with Sen. Richard Lindsay, D-Kanawha, and Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, about the many election-related bills introduced this legislative session.

Voting legislation that's a top priority for Democrats and civil rights leaders seemed headed for defeat as the Senate opened Tuesday, a devastating setback enabled by President Joe Biden’s own party as two holdout senators refuse to support rule changes to overcome a Republican filibuster.

On this West Virginia Morning, a record 158 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election. But over the past year, both Republicans and Democrats have tried to pass polarizing voting rights laws. We explore what this could mean for West Virginia.

Since the last election, several GOP-led states have passed laws that limit who can submit mail-in ballots and vote early. At the same time, U.S. Senate Democrats are pushing to loosen restrictions on a federal level with proposed laws like the For the People Act.

About 40 people stood in the hot sun at the state capitol as part of the “Mass Moral Motorcade on Manchin.” They began their journey in Madison as a tip of the hat to the March on Blair Mountain -- a violent labor uprising that saw West Virginians demand better.

On this West Virginia Morning, high levels of PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” have contaminated a plastics recycling company in Henderson, Kentucky. We learn about the extent of the pollution. Also, in this show, 50 years ago, 18, 19 and 20-year-olds were given the right to vote. West Virginia’s senior U.S. senator at the time, Jennings Randolph, was instrumental in that effort.

A Democrat senator from West Virginia says he will vote against one of the party's most significant voting rights bills in years, effectively overturning the legislation.

President Joe Biden used the 100th anniversary of Tulsa's race massacre to make a plea for sweeping legislation in Congress to protect the right to vote as Republican-led governments in Texas and other states pass new restrictions making it tougher to cast ballots.

On this West Virginia Morning, we look at new and growing collegiate recovery programs for students struggling with substance use disorder. Also, we have updates on the COVID-19 vaccine, school bus replacements, and a story about the 50th anniversary of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in West Virginia.