THE WEEKLY REVEAL
Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022
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Hello! In this issue:
- How an illegal dump in Chicago exposed massive corruption.
- Four quick takeaways from the midterms.
- Our voter suppression investigation is a Sidney Award winner.
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THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
Six Stories of Rubble. A Million Stories Buried Underneath.
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This week on Reveal, an illegal construction dump appears in a Chicago neighborhood and grows to six stories tall. When residents try to figure out how the dump came to exist, they discover a story of massive political corruption.
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🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
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It’s not just politics as usual.
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REVEAL EXPLAINS
Your Guide to the Attack on Democracy
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Supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon watch election results on election night in Grand Rapids, Mich. Dixon ran against incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
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We’ve been using this space every week to guide you through the emerging attacks on democracy throughout the United States. The midterm elections on Tuesday were a major milestone in this moment, and we learned this week that, at the very least, democracy didn’t lose.
- Misinformation – about things like election results and voter fraud conspiracies – didn’t appear to spread widely. No one’s claiming victory yet, but there were reasons to be hopeful. “I felt like we’re seeing supply of disinformation stay steady and high – particularly around election denialism rhetoric,” Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, an advocacy group for digital rights and accountability, told The New York Times. “But demand seems somehow lower than feared as voters displayed resilience this election cycle to the lies that have tried to sway them in the ballot box.”
- Election-denying candidates for governor lost in key battleground states. “With Democrats sweeping gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – where GOP governors could have certified sham presidential electors for a losing GOP candidate – a big pathway to a stolen or crisis-ridden 2024 election has been choked off,” notes The Washington Post. In Arizona, a fourth election-denying gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, continues to trail but is locked in a close battle (and is trying to raise concerns about the voting process there). While many election-denying candidates for secretary of state didn’t fare well overall, one is still in a tight contest in Nevada. And in Arizona, Democrat Adrian Fontes defeated election denier Mark Finchem in a race that was just called Friday evening.
- That said, plenty of election deniers did win on Tuesday. Check out this New York Times interactive for the full rundown.
- But political newcomers who made voter fraud central to their campaign didn’t fare so well. “Of the 80 non-incumbent Republican election deniers who ran for House, Senate, governor, secretary of state and attorney general, just 22 are currently projected to win (28%), while 49 (61%) are projected to lose, and nine are in races that have yet to be called,” FiveThirtyEight reported Thursday afternoon.
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Let us know
When we launched this section of the newsletter, our goal was to help you understand the threats to democracy. Those aren’t going away. But now that the midterms have passed, we’re going to pause this part as we plan our democracy coverage going forward. Did you find this section helpful? Please let us know by emailing us at [email protected].
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In the last two years, at least 130 bills have been introduced across 42 states that would increase the involvement of law enforcement in the voting process, a Reveal analysis has found.
At least 65% of the proposed bills were introduced by Republicans or Republican-majority committees. When Democrats have advanced legislation, it has often criminalized election interference, in response to reports of harassment and threats against voters and poll workers.
In many cases, the proponents of the harshest laws are also purveyors of the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
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🏆 Reveal’s voter suppression investigation wins a Sidney Award. Reporter Ese Olumhense has been named the winner of the November 2022 Sidney Award for her investigation uncovering the most intense voter suppression threat in decades.
“This story makes the critical links between conspiracy theories, criminalization and voter suppression,” said Sidney judge Lindsay Beyerstein. “Olumhense shows how Republicans are reviving Jim Crow-like voter suppression tactics under the guise of fighting fraud.”
📽️ Watch “The Grab” online. Our new feature film documentary tracks our yearslong investigation into the shadowy international scramble to buy up food and water supplies via covert land grabs. DOC NYC has tickets available to screen the film online between Nov. 14-27. Buy your ticket today.
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This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Andrew Donohue and Kassie Navarro and copy edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend. Have some thoughts? Drop us a line with feedback or ideas!
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