Author: Madeline Marshall

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Why some Americans’ votes count more than others.

Vox | October 31, 2020

In the 2000 US presidential election, the Democratic candidate got half a million more votes than the Republican. The Democrat lost. Sixteen years later the same thing happened again. In the US, if you run for president, it does not actually matter how many people in the country vote for you. What matters instead is an arcane system for selecting America’s head of state called the Electoral College.

The Electoral College is the reason the US has something called “swing states,” and it’s the reason those places get to decide the future of the country. It’s the reason presidential candidates almost never campaign in the country’s biggest cities. And more recently, it’s also the reason that Republican candidates have been able to eke out victories in the presidential election without actually getting the most votes.

The Electoral College makes some Americans’ votes more powerful than others. In fact, that’s part of the reason we have it to begin with; in the country’s early years, the Electoral College helped give the votes of Southern Whites more weight than the votes of Northerners. The idea at its core, that certain votes simply matter more than others, is baked into the American tradition. In the 2020 election, it may decide the winner.

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Why are the police bringing military assault rifles to protests? And where did they get them?

Vox | June 25, 2020

Across the country, Americans protesting racial injustice and police brutality – the overwhelming majority of them peacefully – have been met by police forces that look more like an army. Officers have shown up to protests with riot gear, armored trucks, and military rifles. This is what America’s police now look like, and it’s the result of a decades-long buildup of military equipment among the country’s police departments. It began as a Reagan-era program to give police departments more resources to fight the War on Drugs, and has escalated ever since. Today, the idea of a militarized police force is baked into how American police see themselves.

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Can a runner give you Covid-19?

Vox | May 28, 2020

If you want to stay totally safe from Covid-19, and eliminate the risk of either getting it or transmitting it, you have to stay home. But as the weather gets warmer, public places start to open up, and many places enter their fourth month of life under coronavirus, that’s becoming less and less realistic.

At the same time, we know that coronavirus can be transmitted through the air — and that raises some pretty big questions. Is it safe to go the beach? What about a park? Is a heavy-breathing runner going to infect you as they pass you? In short: How do you go outside safely?

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Send this to anyone who still thinks Covid-19 is basically the same as the flu.

Vox | April 1, 2020

Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has similar symptoms to the flu. They also spread in similar ways. So it’s natural to want to compare the two. But Covid-19 is very different, in ways that make it much more dangerous. And understanding how is key to understanding why we have to take it so seriously.

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How did America’s Mayor wind up at the center of Trump’s impeachment scandal?

Vox | December 28, 2019

Rudy Giuliani started his career as a superstar prosecutor and a crime-fighting mayor. Then he led New York City back from the attacks of September 11th, and it made him a beloved national figure. But today’s Giuliani is something different: He’s the guy willing to say anything to defend Donald Trump on TV, a central figure in the scandal that got the president impeached, and he’s under investigation by the US attorney’s office he once led. How did Rudy Giuliani get here?