About Us
Our Mission
The extraordinarily lengthy and controversial resolution of the 2000 U.S. presidential election revealed that our electoral system is in serious need of reform. Congress responded by passing the Help America Vote Act of 2002, state and federal legislators proposed additional laws and amendments, and scholars and advocates produced a flurry of research, reports, and proposals.
The AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project, operating between 2005 and 2010, synthesized that research and bridged together the research and policy communities. The project’s goals were to:
- Establish links among voting research projects, synthesize findings, and make findings accessible to the broad policy community
- Ensure that research and policy recommendations are fed into the policy process in a timely and productive fashion
- Assemble a working group of experts to think through the substance and politics of a practical policy agenda
- Develop a bipartisan, practical national policy agenda for election reform and monitor the implementation of HAVA and its proposed amendments
This project was made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
View the Election Reform Project’s Agenda for Reform here.
Staff and Scholars
Co-directors:
- Thomas E. Mann, The Brookings Institution
- Norman J. Ornstein, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Principal Contributor:
- John C. Fortier, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Senior Fellow:
- Karlyn H. Bowman, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Staff:
- Mark Hiller, The Brookings Institution
- Jessica Leval, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Jennifer Marsico, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Molly Reynolds, The Brookings Institution
- Timothy Ryan, The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Raffaela Wakeman, The Brookings Institution