Megan Verlee

The nearly 200-year-old writing system may be meeting its match. Smartphones and screen-reading software are making Braille less and less necessary. Today, the National Federation for the Blind predicts that only one in 10 blind people can actually read it.

The once sleepy role of secretary of state is rising in profile and controversy as the business of conducting elections has become more and more contentious over the past decade. From Maine to New Mexico, secretaries of state are making activism their trademark.