Election officials in Iowa are upping their efforts to increase political participation among the state's youngest voters. A registration event has netted thousands of new voters - who are teens.

Iowa law requires high schools to conduct two voter registration drives every year to educate students.

This year, Secretary of State Paul Pate set aside a single day to turn the education into action, and get eligible high school students registered.

In Iowa, 17-year-olds who will be 18 by November of an election year can vote in primaries, and Pate travels the state to teach kids how government affects them.

"I ask young people, 'How many of you work a part-time job?' And hands go up," said Pate. "And I go, 'Well then, you're paying taxes right now - and you have no voice in how much you should be paying and where it goes.' Really, state and local government has a huge impact on these young people. So, we start with that message."

Pate said 4,500 17-year-olds are registered to vote as a result of the efforts. That's 1,100 more than were registered six months ago.

Pate said often, getting students registered to vote is the hard part. Once they're signed up, it's important for them to learn about the issues - and that happens in ways new and old.

"Still, the number one influencer is their family, so they're still having that conversation around the dinner table," said Pate. "And of course, the second one coming into it is social media - and their friends coming right in, close to third. So those are the audiences we have to play to, to instill in them why they need to be voters."

In yet another effort to encourage participation, Iowa held a straw poll for teens just before the state's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses last month. Six thousand students cast ballots.

Donald Trump came out on top in the Republican contest - and Marianne Williamson, who has since dropped out of the presidential race, won on the Democratic side.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.




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It's no secret President-elect Donald Trump wants to fire thousands of federal workers.

But in a state like Maryland - home to the fourth-highest number of federal employees - they and their union are readying for a fight to protect their jobs.

Trump has said he wants to revive what's known as Schedule F - a policy that can strip civil servants of their protections and make them at-will employees, meaning they can be fired without cause.

Ottis Johnson, vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees District 14, said any drastic cuts to the federal workforce wouldn't just hurt union members.

He said Americans will feel the impact to services like Social Security and veterans' healthcare.

"You can't run the United States government the same way that you run Twitter," said Johnson. "We represent over 800,000 federal workers, and we can't remove 80% and still expect to be able to serve the American people with the same proficiency and knowledge that they have right now."

Trump has also picked billionaire Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead an informal effort to restructure the federal government.

The pair floated the idea of "large-scale firings" in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

In 2020, Trump signed an executive order for Schedule F a few months before the end of his presidency. President Joe Biden then revoked it in his first month in office.

Johnson said the AFGE has reached out to the incoming administration to discuss the important work federal employees do, and has a legal team prepared to challenge firings.

He said a major reduction in the federal workforce would hurt efficiency.

"It will be affecting the American people as well," said Johnson. "How can you get your benefits when you don't have the people there that have been doing the work for all these years? And now you're down to a skeleton crew, which will not be able to put out the type of work that we have now with the workforce that is going forward."

More than 2 million people work for the federal government, and Maryland is home to more than 140,000 of those workers.

New York good government groups want a more robust state ethics commission.

The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government came about in 2022 after the dissolution of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Watchdog groups want the agency to implement several measures to improve ethics, lobbying oversight and transparency.

Rachael Fauss, senior policy analyst for the advocacy group Reinvent Albany, said one recommendation is to have lobby reports include a lobbyist and client position on legislation.

"Right now, you don't know when you look at the lobby filings," Fauss pointed out. "What you see is that a person or a company lobbied on a bill, but you don't know if they were supporting or opposing it. We think that's crucial information for the public to have."

Other recommendations include fully electronic lobby filings and ethics disclosures, and publishing what ethics advice the commission gives to elected officials who seek it out. Fauss noted one challenge to implement changes is the commission's budget, which some feel needs to be an independent line item.

It is uncertain whether the changes can occur because the commission's constitutionality is being challenged by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He alleges the commission is too independent and the governor should have control of the body. The New York State Supreme Court agreed and declared it unconstitutional.

Fauss noted the Court of Appeals' decision will determine its future.

"If part of the court ruling allows it to exist in its current form until an amendment can be voted on, then I think it is less disruptive," Fauss explained. "The other option is that the Legislature or governor would have to change the commission structure under that new constitutional framework."

If a new ethics commission was established through an amendment, it would not come to fruition until at least 2027 or 2028 because the state Legislature has to pass an ethics commission bill in two consecutive legislative sessions before an amendment can be put before voters. Arguments in the case will be held on Jan. 7.


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The 2024 presidential election has raised complex emotions for incarcerated Ohioans, many of whom are unable to vote but remain deeply engaged in political discussions.

As a group often left out of political discourse, their views on the election reflect a broader desire for involvement in decisions that directly affect their lives.

Nicole Lewis, engagement editor for The Marshall Project, talked about the findings of its new survey of Ohio's incarcerated population.

"Many of the people who oversee the system are elected officials, sheriffs, judges, district attorneys," Lewis observed. "and so incarcerated people have a really unique perspective on how well the people in those roles are executing their jobs."

The presidential election held particular significance this year, with concerns about criminal justice reform, sentencing policies and who can participate in elections. Despite limited news access, many voiced strong opinions about candidates, especially former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor.

Lewis noted the broader implications of the political divide, especially in how those inside view figures like Trump and Harris.

"Many, many people told us, 'How can I move forward?'" Lewis reported. "'How can I believe that society would want me back if they're so willing to cast Donald Trump aside and make his felony convictions a complete disqualification for public office?'"

While people in prison in Ohio may not have had the opportunity to vote in the 2024 election, advocates said their voices and perspectives are crucial to understanding the political landscape. Their insights, shaped by years behind bars, are particularly relevant as more individuals regain the right to vote upon release and the effects of their views could shape the future of both criminal justice reform and electoral engagement nationwide.


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