Ashley Lopez
Ashley Lopez is a reporter forWGCUNews. A native of Miami, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree.
Previously, Lopez was a reporter for Miami's NPR member station, WLRN-MiamiHerald News. Before that, she was a reporter at The Florida Independent. She also interned for Talking Points Memo in New York City andWUNCin Durham, North Carolina. She also freelances as a reporter/blogger for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
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The GOP-led law includes new identification requirements for people voting by mail, and it expands access for partisan poll watchers.
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Texas legislators have begun a special session, where they once again will consider a bill that could change how the state votes.
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Harris County around Houston used drive-thru voting and extended voting hours to boost turnout in 2020. Republican leaders in Texas say such efforts were an overreach.
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Patients and families at a children's hospital are being asked to not take showers, KUT reports. They were also told the toilets can't flush, and staff are changing linens only as needed.
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Millions of dollars are flowing into state legislative races. Redistricting and the coronavirus are expected to be top of the policy agenda in 2021 and party control could mean everything.
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Gov. Greg Abbott ordered order a limit to the number of places where voters can hand deliver mail-in ballots. Some county officials worry it will lead to confusion and voter suppression.
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The coronavirus pandemic has made some past polling locations, like grocery stores and nursing homes, less appealing this year. So state officials are searching elsewhere.
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Even as many other states expand mail-in voting due to the pandemic, Texas officials say they may prosecute voters who ask for an absentee ballot because they're scared of going to the polls.
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An estimated 860,000 people were set to become citizens this year — with many also expected to become first-time voters. But the pandemic has put a temporary halt to naturalization ceremonies.
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Texas has one of the strictest vote-by-mail programs in the country. Democrats have sued, saying such rules don't work during a public health emergency.