In 2013, about 5,100 lever-operated voting machines, which had been replaced in 2010, were restored for use in non-federal elections in New York City.

A technician bought an old, likely-decommissioned voting machine from 2013 and took it apart to see how a would-be hacker might be able to exploit its vulnerabilities. Get a sense of the needs for secure, up-to-date voting machines with this...

None of NYC's garbage is processed within the city. It is transported by truck, train, and barge to waste-to-energy facilities and landfills as far away as Ohio and South Carolina, a vast logistical operation.

The first iteration was made of iron and wood, weighing in at 700 pounds. The 2025 version is made of 5,280 crystals and 32,256 LED lights and weighs a whopping 12,350 pounds.

Since 1965, federal oversight has blocked thousands of state-level voting changes—including redistricting plans—by requiring approval for measures that could affect minority representation, a process scaled back by the Supreme Court in 2013.

After multiple states sent competing electoral slates in 1876, Congress formed the Electoral Commission of 1877 to arbitrate the dispute, which ultimately awarded the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes and prompted later reforms to the electoral count process.

The Erie Canal was one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in American history. Many have said such an effort would be impossible today. This article explores why that is the case and ponders the future of large-scale American infrastructure development.

In this article, Silver weighs the Electoral College's flaws—especially popular-vote inversions—against its advantages, arguing it can limit the effect of surplus votes in heavily one-sided states and encourage broader competition.

By 1975, the city owed $5B to $6B in short-term debt; over a million manufacturing jobs had left the city since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, the murder rate was more than double than 10 years earlier. Graffiti was seen as illegal vandalism perpetrated by unsupervised teenagers and was viewed by some as emblematic of the larger societal decline.

The USA has seen some crazy elections. Election fraud is vanishingly rare now, but here are the craziest cases of election fraud in U.S. history.

Residents of the five boroughs of New York produce 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater everyday. Seventy miles of sewer pipes, first built in the mid-1800s, feed the sewage to 14 wastewater treatment and recovery plants where the waste is treated back to viable, drinkable water. See what shouldn't go down the toilet here.

Mocked as “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton championed the Erie Canal against skeptics. His political drive secured funding for the project in 1817.

Voter turnout reached 66% in 2020—the highest since 1908—and 64% in 2024, tied for second-highest with 1960. In 2024, Trump benefited from higher turnout among his prior voters and new voters.

In 1870, Alfred Ely Beach secretly tunneled under Broadway in 58 nights, disguising his pneumatic subway as a mail tube to fool Tammany Hall, the corrupt political machine that ran New York City. Nearly half a million New Yorkers rode it before politics, and a stock market crash killed the project.

During the Orange Revolution, Ukrainians protested against election fraud favoring pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Weeks of peaceful demonstrations led to a rerun vote, bringing Viktor Yushchenko to power and weakening Moscow's influence in the country.

Even after a winner is projected, the election is not complete. Between Election Day and Inauguration Day, electors formally cast votes and Congress meets in a joint session to certify the results, following a constitutionally defined timeline.

In 1906, the city banned fireworks displays, forcing the Times Square celebration to find a new centerpiece. The Times commissioned Jacob Starr, a Ukrainian immigrant who worked for Strauss Signs, to develop an ornament. He returned with the now-iconic New Year’s ball.

Computational methods are convincing a number of judges that some state district maps are drawn illegally. Here's a simple overview of how it works.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was hoping to modernize the city and believed that street performers only crowded the streets and added to an annoying cacophony. Residents wrote to the mayor to protest the decision, arguing that buskers were appreciated by the public.

In 1972, the NYPD made over 1,500 graffiti-related arrests. By 1973, the city was annually spending $10M to remove and limit graffiti. That same year, a poll conducted by an anti-graffiti task force found that the "vast majority" of residents did not consider graffiti to be art.

The red–blue color scheme used on election night maps emerged in the 20th century as television networks adopted color graphics to make results easier to follow. The association of red with Republicans and blue with Democrats later became standardized.

After 1877, former Confederate states passed poll taxes, literacy tests, property requirements, and grandfather clauses to disenfranchise Black voters—restrictions that remained in place for nearly a century until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

What’s actually at stake when someone casts their vote in a US election? CNN’s “Election 101” podcast series provides ten episodes summarizing some of the basics of democratic elections. The ins and outs of voting are highlighted in 15-minute episodes on voter registration and voting by mail. Additional segments highlight how the electoral system works, how ballots are counted, the Electoral College, why it takes so long to get election results, and more.

Each of New York City's five boroughs—Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island—corresponds to a separate county under New York State law, forming a layered government structure that is unique among major American cities.

In the 1980s, an Alabama businessman loaded 3,168 tons of mafia-controlled New York trash onto a barge. It was rejected by six states and three countries, sparking a media frenzy. This event helped convince Americans that they were running out of landfill space, giving rise to curbside recycling.

In response to Republican mid-decade redistricting efforts, Democratic leaders in California, New York, Illinois, and Maryland signaled plans to revisit their own congressional maps.

In the early 1820s, an estimated 20,000 hogs roamed Manhattan's streets, feeding on trash that the city lacked a system to collect. Pigs were eventually banned at the urging of wealthy residents, who feared they would deter tourists and drive down property values.

This report examines federal oversight of Newark's police department as the DOJ enforces reforms following its investigation into civil rights violations, highlighting the challenges of reforming local policing through federal intervention.