Mitch McConnell is bent on making voting in Kentucky harder than it needs to be

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( June 23, 2020 Yippee yi yo, yippee ki yay, today is primary day! (In Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, that is. If you're a registered voter in one of those states and haven't already cast an absentee ballot, be sure to head to the polls by the end of the day.) Kentucky's primary election is especially important because it will determine which Democrat—Charles Booker or Amy McGrath—will face off against Senate Majority Leader and soulless septuagenarian Mitch McConnell in the state's senatorial election in November. The state has [slashed the number of polling places]( from the typical 3,700 to fewer than 200, ostensibly in response to the coronavirus, making it much harder for voters, especially Black voters, to cast their ballots. For Mitch McConnell, keeping people out of polling places means keeping himself in power. Our voting rights reporter Ari Berman has compiled a list of ways the state's senior senator has [refused to make it easier for people to cast their ballots](. Also in today's newsletter, we dig into suburban white women's hesitation to [defund the police](; a candidate for state representative in Washington forges a campaign-trail identity based on her [time in prison](; a photographer documents the [protests against police brutality]( in New York; our tech and data reporters explain how the [coronavirus spread QAnon](; and a Florida law obscures the name of the police officer who [killed Tony McDade](. —Abigail Weinberg P.S. Thank you to everyone who has pitched in during our [big fundraising drive](. We still need to raise about $97,000 to hit our $400,000 goal by June 30, so if you haven't yet, I hope you'll consider joining your fellow readers and helping make our reporting possible with a donation today: [Whether you can give $5 or $500, it all makes a difference](. [IPG SelectBooks]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Kentucky Votes Today. Here Are All the Ways Mitch McConnell Has Made That Harder.]( The state's senior senator has repeatedly refused to vote on bills to improve ballot access. BY ARI BERMAN [Trending] [Suburban white women built “tough on crime” America. Could they help force its demise?]( BY KARA VOGHT [For Tarra Simmons, her time in prison isn't a liability. It's a campaign-trail identity.]( BY CHRISTIE THOMPSON [An inside look at weeks of demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd.]( BY KATIE ORLINSKY [How the coronavirus spread QAnon]( BY ALI BRELAND AND SINDUJA RANGARAJAN [IPG SelectBooks]( [Food] [Special Feature]( [How Did Europe Avoid the COVID-19 Catastrophe Ravaging US Meatpacking Plants?]( More than nine times as many American meat industry workers have tested positive for coronavirus. BY BRIDGET HUBER [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. 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