In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act to avoid the Florida controversy during the 2000 election. North Carolina had some $4 million in federal funds coming to it from the HAVA, but the state needed to provide an extra $600,000 in its own voting budget to release those funds. Last week, the House and Senate chose to hold back the $600,000. Host Frank Stasio will discuss what the loss of these funds means with Bob Hall, the executive director of Democracy North Carolina, and Susan Myrick, elections policy analyst for the Civitas Institute.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Shawn Wen joined the staff of The State of Things in March 2012 and served as associate producer until February 2014.