A University of Nevada-Las Vegas law professor said the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has issued major decisions dramatically changing the country's legal landscape.

David Orentlicher said the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and its constitutional right to an abortion two years ago was a pivotal moment in history. Former President Donald Trump has taken credit for placing three conservative justices on the court, which helped delegate the issue of abortion to states.

Orentlicher noted it is unknown how many appointments a president may be dealt, which can be unsettling.

"It is unpredictable which is a reason why one common reform proposal is to say, instead of having justices serve for life, have them serve 18 years and every two years," Orentlicher outlined. "One justice's term will expire so we'll know that every president will get two appointments."

He pointed out looking at today's voter's political ideals, the court should ideally reflect a closer 50-50 split. And while some have made the case for Supreme Court reform initiatives to bring more balance, the initiatives have not advanced. Republicans in Congress argued the changes would jeopardize the separation of powers between Congress and the Court.

Sarah Harris, deputy communications director for Stand Up America, said the winner of the November election could reshape legal precedent in the U.S. for generations. Her group conducted a survey and reported nearly 75% of voters said the selection and confirmation of future justices will be important when deciding who to support in the upcoming races.

"It's important to think about generations after us, because many of the people who could potentially be put on the bench will be on there for 50 to 60 years, potentially," Harris emphasized. "Justices continue to be appointed younger and younger."

Harris added four of the current justices on the bench will be in their 70s in 2025 when the next president takes office. The next president could have the opportunity to potentially put two to three new justices on the bench.

By Lourdes Medrano for Yes! Media.
Broadcast version by Kathryn Carley for Arizona News Connection reporting for the Yes! Media-Public News Service Collaboration

After 37 years of living in the United States, Gastón Garcia overcame anxiety over the naturalization process and became a citizen in Tucson, Arizona, in late September 2024. He has another milestone still ahead: voting for the first time.

Wearing a dark blue suit and a broad smile, he walked out of his naturalization ceremony holding a small U.S. flag and his citizenship certificate. The timing was no coincidence; he aimed to become eligible to vote before the Nov. 5 presidential election. 

“I am very excited that I will be able to vote,” says Garcia, 57. “We can express our voice and, more than anything, we can make ourselves count.”

In swing states such as Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, and large states such as California, the influence of Latino voters like Garcia could be key to choosing the next president in the race between former President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Newly naturalized citizens and an influx of young Latinos reaching the voting age of 18 boosted the estimated number of eligible Latino voters to 36.2 million in 2024, up from 32.3 million in 2020.

A poll released in mid-October by Phoenix-based advocacy group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) and Data for Social Good shows that a majority of 1,028 registered Arizona voters surveyed between April and May are highly motivated to cast a ballot. While immigration remains important for many Latinos, the poll found they are also deeply concerned about the economy, health care access, and affordable housing. The findings track with results from national polls examining the issues Latino voters are thinking about less than a month before the election.

The shifting demographics of Latino voters reflect the nuanced distinctions within an evolving population often characterized as a monolithic voting bloc. “We’re a diverse community with a wide range of political views, experience, and priorities,” says Alejandra Gomez, executive director of LUCHA.

Canvassers have been knocking on doors all over the state since March to encourage voters—Latinos in particular—to cast a ballot and hopes are high that they will turn out en masse, says Stephanie Maldonado, managing director at LUCHA. “I definitely do see our community showing up and showing up big this November 5th,” she adds.

Garcia says he’s looking forward to making his vote count. For years after coming to the U.S. from Mexico, he worked in construction. In the 1990s, he started his own landscaping business, which he still operates. These days he worries about inflation because his earnings don’t go as far as they used to when buying necessities. “Prices have gone way up, for food and gasoline and other items,” he says.

Garcia is hopeful the next president will take on issues related to the economy, but he also would like the future commander-in-chief to push for immigration reforms. What’s needed, he says, is an orderly, speedier process that gives eligible people already in the country or waiting to apply for U.S. asylum south of the border an opportunity to live here legally. “People come here to improve their lives and to achieve the American dream, as I did,” he says. 

Dustin Corella, who was born in Tucson, is among a generation of young Latinos coming of age in 2024. Soon after turning 18 in June, he registered to vote and is eager to cast a ballot. “It feels like a big responsibility,” he says.

The issues motivating Corella to vote include his desire to elect politicians who ensure appropriate funding for public education as well as after-school programs and other resources aimed at youth in the community. And he says there’s a need for elected officials who can better address the impact of climate change, adding, “Those are the things that I care about, and I’m looking for leaders who can tackle them and create opportunities for the next generation.”

Corella is one of 1.3 million eligible Latino voters in Arizona. The state, along with California, Texas, Florida, and New York, is home to about two-thirds, or 65%, of all Latino eligible voters in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

For Latinos and immigrant communities across the country, the stakes are high this election, says Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans. The coalition of immigrant and refugee rights organizations is working to encourage the nation’s naturalized citizens to vote, especially in the face of anti-immigrant attacks. For example, a slew of Republican campaign ads focuses negatively on immigrants.

“With the likes of Project 2025 looming about in the background, of family separation and of attacks to our democracy, I think it was important for us to make sure that our communities, and naturalized voters especially, are aware of the power that their vote and their voice has to shape the outcome of the election,” Melaku says.

Project 2025 is a policy agenda of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that aims to radically restructure the federal government in a conservative administration. Experts caution that the project threatens voting rights and promotes a litany of anti-immigrant measures with far-reaching implications.

Trump has distanced himself from the project, but he has made immigration a key part of the race. In one campaign stop after another, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric against immigrants punctuates his speeches. Should he win, he promises to quickly launch a mass deportation of immigrants living in the country without legal status—and even some with legal status.

Instead of countering him with pro-immigrant rhetoric, Harris has responded by taking a tougher stance on the issue, including a proposal to toughen asylum restrictions implemented by the Biden administration. She has also endorsed comprehensive immigration reforms. Trump blames Harris for a record number of migrants—many of them asylum seekers—entering the U.S. from Mexico, even as entries have declined sharply in 2024 amid policy changes on both sides of the border. 

In the border state of Arizona, the immigration debate is ever present. On Nov. 5, voters will reject or approve Proposition 314, which would give the state authority to enforce federal immigration policies. The initiative, Maldonado says, “specifically targets immigrant communities and continues to push racial profiling, which we know is a top concern among the Latino community. And I think that this election for us is pushing back against policies that continue to criminalize our families and communities.”

Immigration hits close to home for Maldonado, who comes from a mixed-status family. She and her two siblings are U.S.-born citizens and her father is a legal resident. However, her mother is undocumented, says Maldonado, and returned to Mexico some time ago. Her mother’s departure was the catalyst for Maldonado to become more involved in electoral and civic matters. “We need a permanent solution on immigration, not just for my family, but millions of families across the country and many diverse families that are living in these complexities of being separated,” she explains. 

The Latino vote in the upcoming election could mean a shift in the usual narrative about the nation’s second-largest group of voters, Maldonado says. “If we didn’t have this much power, there wouldn’t be so many attempts at trying to strip away our rights.” She adds, “We just need to come together and make it happen even greater this year.”


Lourdes Medrano wrote this article for Yes! Media.


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A nonprofit report aims to build trust in Michigan's voting system by explaining the safeguards that ensure fair and free elections.

The report from Informing Democracy shows that in Michigan, elections are mainly managed locally by more than 17 hundred election offices statewide.

Local officials handle most tasks on and after Election Day.

County boards, with two Republicans and two Democrats, certify county results - while the state board certifies statewide and multi-county elections.

In the Great Lakes State, the group is on the lookout for certification deadlocks. Jenny Gimian is the director of legal research and senior counsel at Informing Democracy.

"But in Michigan, certification process is notable because the Board of County Canvassers is made up of even numbers of members, equal numbers from each party," said Gimian. "In 2020, there was a temporary deadlock over certification in Wayne County. That's particularly notable - their public outcry and official review was sufficient to break the deadlock in that case."

Michigan law includes enforcement measures to protect the process from officials who refuse to certify elections.

The report shows Michigan's election laws are strong. However, there are some vulnerabilities, where election deniers are interested in subverting the process.

Several individuals of concern were found serving on county boards or as clerks in multiple counties including Wayne, Macomb and Kalamazoo.

Lindsey Miller is the director of strategic research at Informing Democracy.

"We were trying to identify places where there were enough election deniers, or people that had previously acted against elections," said Miller, "to either comprise a majority of board members who will be voting on certification, or comprised of a deadlock, which is what we would probably see in Michigan."

In Michigan, election fraud includes coordinated recount and audit requests, false fraud claims, and refusal by some local officials to certify results because of election denial beliefs.




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Wyoming's secretary of state is asking county clerks to report non-citizens who try to vote, although cases of that - or any other - kind of election fraud are negligible.

According to The Heritage Foundation, there have been four cases of election fraud in Wyoming over the last 23 years - three registrants with incorrect addresses and one convicted felon who voted.

Despite that low rate, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray is raising the alarm over the possibility of non-citizens attempting to vote.

Juan Rosa - the national director of civic engagement for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund - said there is no crisis of non-citizens voting.

"Every audit and every sort of examination of voting over the last few elections," said Rosa, "points out that there's actually very little fraud or attempts at fraud that happen in our elections."

Wyomingites registering to vote must provide proof of identity. Gray this spring proposed a rule to require additional proof of residency.

Gov. Mark Gordon rejected it, saying the proposal doesn't fall within the secretary's authority - a position supported by the Legislative Service Office.

Still, the governor issued an executive order in September bolstering the state's efforts to prevent non-citizens from voting.

Rosa reminded voters that the election process includes safeguards to ensure secure elections. And he added that a delayed result does not necessarily signify a problem.

"The system is supposed to work in a way that takes a few days and, in some cases, even weeks," said Rosa, "for states to go back and ensure that every vote that is cast on Election Day is counted appropriately."

Results delivered on Election Day aren't official until they are certified. The polls are open until 7 p.m. today.




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