Many countries with nominally healthy democracies have something the United States does not: A strong, independent election authority at the national level.

Democratic lawmakers in Texas left the state to prevent a vote on redrawing the state’s congressional maps. The redrawn maps would create five more winnable U.S. House districts for Republicans. Democratic Texas state Rep.

Democrats and Republicans in Texas are in an escalating fight over the GOP's efforts to redraw Texas' congressional map to gain five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives as the midterms loom. Redistricting is the process by which states redraw or redefine legislative district boundaries on the federal,