AG subpoenas enviro groups and more news from the states

Good evening. Tonight we begin in West Virginia, where the state’s attorney general subpoenaed records related to climate change from environmental groups, a controversial move. 

In South Dakota, voters who rely on advance mail ballots explain what the accessibility means to them: better care for patients, no more missed pay opportunities, the opportunity to still be civically involved for those who are home-bound. 

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against another state: this time trying to preemptively stop certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election, amid continuing consternation over a candidate with the same first and last name as the GOP incumbent in a closely contested race. 

In partnership with Evident Media and the Pulitzer Center, States Newsroom is working in the final weeks of this election season to connect crucial election information with audiences at both a local and national level. Watch our video about how anyone can take steps to protect voting rights on a local level, with some specific tips for our readers in Arizona, where today is the final day to request a mail ballot.  

The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed at least six environmental groups, asking for records regarding climate change, in a move at least one advocated called a “fishing expedition intended to stifle our collective voice,” West Virginia Watch reports.  

The subpoenas, sent out in September, asked for internal documents regarding public statements made about West Virginia coal mines, gas wells and other energy sources and their contributions to climate change. The rash of subpoenas came to light Thursday after the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and 350.Org, an organization that advocates for renewable energy, filed suit in federal court to block them. 

Attorney General JB McCuskey, a Republican, enjoyed support from the fossil fuel industry during his 2024 run for office. Since taking office, he has supported efforts to rollback federal greenhouse gas emissions rules, opposed the United State’s participation in international climate talks, and advocated for keeping gas pipelines open. 

President Donald Trump has alleged “mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt,” despite voting by mail himself. He tried to impose new regulations on mail-in voting, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked him last month.

South Dakota Searchlight asked mail-ballot voters why they vote by mail, why it’s important, and what it would mean if mailing their ballots were no longer an option.

Byron Sutter has been voting by mail for years, ever since he worked in healthcare and couldn’t leave his patients to vote in person. Mary Ann Klarenbeek votes by mail because she has breathing problems and can’t stand in line at a polling place. John Jeratowski travels for work as a journeyman electrician and would have to surrender pay to go home and cast his ballot if he couldn’t vote by mail.

They’re some of about 5,700 people who have voted by mail so far in the runup to the Nov. 3 general election. Mail-in voters account for about 13% of ballots cast so far. 

More than 100 of Oregon’s 197 school districts have asked voters in the past eight years to agree to local property tax increases to raise money for school safety upgrades, according to an Oregon Capital Chronicle analysis. 

In 53 of those districts, voters have said yes — sending more than $6 billion to schools for infrastructure projects that also include hundreds of millions of dollars for school modernization and security investments such as automatic locking doors, hardened glass windows, alarm systems and other measures meant to mitigate the risk of a tragedy like last week’s shooting at Silver Rail elementary in Bend.

Voters in the Bend-La Pine School District are among those who approved school safety spending in bond votes taken in 2017 and 2022, and Silver Rail was a beneficiary of those dollars. Nine more school districts are asking voters in November to approve school bonding projects that include school security and safety measures.

Indiana: Republican Gov. Mike Braun led state officials in reported travel expenses last year, traveling mostly within Indiana. Other officials ventured to the White House, Israel, Switzerland and South Korea. 

Arizona: The state’s top election official and attorney general are asking a judge to force Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap to reinstate the voting rights of 25 people who were falsely flagged as noncitizens by a database created by the Trump administration. 

New Hampshire: High school and college students will be barred from using school identification cards to vote Nov. 3, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Nevada: Amid protests and public scrutiny of automated license plate readers, Reno said it would end its contract with Flock cameras. But instead of discontinuing use of the technology, the City Council expanded a contract with Axon, which offers similar surveillance devices.

Washington: Meta has paid the state a record-setting fine of more than $51 million for violating campaign finance laws, but lawmakers were cautioned not to spend the money just yet as an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is expected. 

Florida: Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier is seeking further social media regulation for young people after rejecting a national social-media settlement and following a court victory last week.

Kentucky: A judge upheld the state’s ban on child sex dolls, ruling possession of the dolls is not a First Amendment issue.

Alabama: The state appears to have reduced its error rate for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which could reduce a penalty facing the state in 2027.

Rhode Island: A policy research group at Roger Williams University found no municipality in the state had a home affordable to a household earning the state’s median homeowner income. 

Hundreds of North Carolina A&T State University students filled Greensboro streets Thursday for a 40-minute walk from their campus to an early voting site, partly to do their civic duty and partly as a show of strength. (Photo by Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)

It was the second Greensboro student voter march this month, following an event last week that drew national attention.

Earlier this year, elections officials denied students’ petitions for an early voting site on campus. Students decided to show the power of their numbers with a march to cast ballots.

“It’s wonderful that we are able to activate in this way,” said Zayveon Davis, a student leader on voter engagement. “We are the leaders of tomorrow.”

Read more from North Carolina Newsline. 

Fewer than 5% of U.S. House races are seen by a top political analyst as truly competitive heading into November’s midterm elections, giving relatively few voters the ability to determine which party controls the chamber for the next two years, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

That lack of competition, once a primary election is won, heavily influences which priorities lawmakers pursue, according to experts. It also means voters have less ability to hold lawmakers accountable during the general election, especially if they haven’t kept campaign promises or were embroiled in an ethics scandal. And there’s evidence the number of uncompetitive races can lead to more extreme ideological positions.

The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its legal campaign over the midterm elections, suing Alaska over its U.S. Senate election and appealing a lawsuit against suspected noncitizen voters in California, the D.C. Bureau reports. 

Election law experts have cast doubt on the strength of the cases.

The Justice Department sued Alaska officials in a preemptive attempt to stop certification of its Senate election if, under ranked-choice voting, the Republican incumbent loses by a smaller margin than the votes earned by another candidate of the same name. 

Across the country, voter backlash against data centers is consuming some midterm campaigns, the D.C. Bureau reports. 

Both Democratic and Republican candidates during the heated election cycle have had to navigate deep voter resentment of the massive advanced computer server farm developments that will power artificial intelligence.

A CNN poll found nearly two-thirds of registered voters surveyed said AI and data center development will be an extremely or very important factor in their vote. The poll also found that Democrats are 26 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they’re very concerned about data centers.

There are 1,394 data centers already operating around the United States. As of October, 2,841 more data centers are planned, according to the energy market firm Cleanview.

Across the country, this year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, Stateline reports. 

Many of this year’s ballot measures don’t include summaries to supplement the titles. And many voters don’t read beyond a measure’s title before deciding how to vote, nonprofit Ballotpedia found in its newest Ballot Measure Readability Report.

Federal regulators are cracking down on the nonprofits responsible for coordinating organ donations, aiming to begin shutting down substandard groups by early next year, Stateline reports.

State- and region-based nonprofits known as organ procurement organizations have faced heavy scrutiny in recent years, with media reports and research papers highlighting issues such as skipping over some transplant centers and sicker patients, which worsens racial and socioeconomic disparities in organ transplants.

In November’s midterm elections, Democrats could win a majority of governor’s offices for the first time in 16 years.

President Donald Trump’s influence towers over some tight races. In Wisconsin, the GOP nominee, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In Georgia, Rick Jackson has said he wanted to be “Trump’s favorite governor.” Both Tiffany and Jackson have since tried to distance themselves from the president. 

In Episode 51 of the Stories From The States podcast, States Newsroom reporters from Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin will break down what is happening in their gubernatorial elections and whether the political makeup of their statehouses might flip. 

Listen to Stories From The States below, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Youtube.

Early in-person voting begins in certain counties throughout North Dakota during the next week, an opportunity one group is highlighting to encourage Indigenous people to vote, North Dakota Monitor reports. 

Staff of the Sacred Pipe Resource Center gathered Thursday with half a dozen voters to cast their ballots shortly after polls opened for the first day of Burleigh County’s early vote. They donned matching black T-shirts reading “Democracy is Indigenous.”

Voting can be confusing or intimidating and it’s helpful to have support, said Daniela Aki, the center’s director of civic engagement.

“That’s kind of what we want to do is, again, bring down those barriers to voting and say, ‘This isn’t a scary process. We understand it, so come along with us,’” Aki said.

Sacred Pipe has other initiatives such as civic bingo to talk about candidates and offices and a chaperoned limousine ride for students who have turned 18 to arrive in style to cast their first vote, she said.

The organization also promoted adding all five tribal IDs in North Dakota into state poll worker training, which Aki said hopefully makes the process easier for Native voters.