Latest Stories By Chris Nichols

President Donald Trump during a campaign stop in North Carolina on Wednesday encouraged people to vote both by mail and in person this fall, before walking back some of his comments a day later.  Voting twice in the same election is illegal under California and federal law.  “Let them send it in and let them […]

During her speech accepting the nomination to be Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris didn’t spend much time — at all — detailing her record as a California prosecutor.  Harris did, however, repeat a line during her Democratic National Convention address that’s become standard in her stump speeches both in the Golden State and […]

California Sen. Kamala Harris is known for taking bold stands on criminal justice reform in Congress and has vowed to do the same as Joe Biden’s running mate.  But that was not always the case. As the California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney before that, Harris was often labeled in news articles and […]

Joe Biden picked U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to run as vice president on the Democratic ticket against President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, announced his decision Aug. 11. “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated what election experts across the United States say is a false distinction between “absentee” and “mail-in” voting, one that experts say threatens to sow confusion and undermine confidence in this fall’s election results. In a tweet that grabbed the nation’s attention — mostly because Trump suggested postponing the Nov. […]

Demonstrators calling for racial justice packed the streets of Los Angeles this spring, as they did in cities across the globe following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  But how much, exactly, did the demonstrations in L.A.  — where many people wore face coverings, but also chanted and crowded together for hours — […]

California plans to send all active registered voters a mail-in ballot ahead of the November election, a move the state’s top elections official says is meant to “fortify our democracy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.”  “Expanding vote-by-mail statewide is a necessity to protect our right to vote and our public health,” Secretary of […]

Voting by mail isn’t new in California. It’s been allowed for anyone who’s registered, and for any reason, since 1979, according to the California Voter Foundation.  But with fears that casting a ballot in-person could be risky this fall amid COVID-19, plus President Donald Trump’s misleading claims that mail-in voting “will lead to massive fraud […]

Recent claims by President Trump, that voting by mail leads to fraud and hurts Republicans, have put a spotlight on the topic. They’ve also inspired pushback from Democratic leaders in California, where generations of voters have used “absentee ballots,” and 72 percent of all ballots cast in the state’s March primary were by mail.  On […]

There’s confusion — along with some manufactured fear — about the role of the National Guard in the nation’s fight against the coronavirus.  Many have posted videos on social media of tanks and Humvees rolling into towns while others have spread false rumors about the Guard leading “COVID-19 quarantine teams” and imposing military law.  “Coronavirus […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed in a letter to President Trump this week that a staggering “56 percent” of Californians “will be infected” with the coronavirus over the next two months. A day later, Newsom ordered all residents to stay at home and avoid all non-essential travel to slow the spread of the virus. While his […]

GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield is facing calls this week to apologize for and delete a tweet in which he called the novel coronavirus “the Chinese coronavirus,” a description some say is racist and xenaphobic.  COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of China’s […]