Ashley Lopez
Ashley Lopez joined KUT in January 2016. She covers politics and health care, and is part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News reporting collaborative. Previously she worked as a reporter at public radio stations in Louisville, Ky.; Miami and Fort Myers, Fla., where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.
Ashley was also part of NPR’s Political Reporting Partnership during the 2016 presidential election. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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In 2021, states will redraw voting district lines to redistribute political power. In many places, the fight over where lines fall is expected to be bitter and partisan.
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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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Democrats are nine seats away from winning a majority in the 150-seat chamber in the Texas House of Representatives. A win would mean Democrats could help draw new political maps in 2021.
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A series of efforts by Texas Republicans to make access to voting more difficult in the final stretch of the fall campaign comes as the party's lock on the state's politics is getting looser.
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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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Thousands of people were scheduled to become U.S. citizens in the last few months and hoped to vote in the presidential election. But naturalization ceremonies have been suspended due to the pandemic.
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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.