Ashley Lopez
Ashley Lopez is a reporter forWGCUNews. A native of Miami, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree.
Previously, Lopez was a reporter for Miami's NPR member station, WLRN-MiamiHerald News. Before that, she was a reporter at The Florida Independent. She also interned for Talking Points Memo in New York City andWUNCin Durham, North Carolina. She also freelances as a reporter/blogger for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
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Texas legislators have begun a special session, where they once again will consider a bill that could change how the state votes.
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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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Nearly 700,000 Texans have lost health insurance during the pandemic, and the state already had more uninsured people than any other. Many Texans with COVID-19 symptoms hesitate to seek treatment.
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Texas has the most uninsured people in the U.S. – close to 20% of its population. They face a lot of unknowns about how to get and pay for health care if infected. Texas hospitals are affected, too.
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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.
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For Texas Democrats, the state's Super Tuesday primary could help define the shape of a party that's on the rise after more than two decades of being shut out of power.
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Three years after winning a big legal battle, abortion providers still find themselves losing the ground war when it comes to keeping clinics open across the huge, populous state.