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AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project Launch
February 08, 2006
On Wednesday, February 8, 2006, Senator Barack Obama delivered a keynote address to inaugurate the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar at AEI, and Thomas Mann, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, then moderated a discussion of the past and future of election reform among experts in election law, technology, and administration. See below for panelist information, the conference agenda, and a complete video and transcript of the event.

Transcript
Video Event Agenda:

Introduction:
Strobe Talbott, President, The Brookings Institution

Keynote Address:
The Honorable Barack Obama, United States Senator, Illinois

Panel One: HAVA – How Is It Working?

Moderator:

Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, AEI

Panelists:
Paul DeGregorio, Chair, Election Assistance Commission
Honorable Deborah Markowitz, Vermont Secretary of State
Doug Chapin, Director, electionline.org

Panel Two: Election Reform – Looking Ahead

Moderator:
Thomas Mann, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

Panelists:
Michael Alvarez, Professor and Director of the Cal Tech-MIT Voting Technology Project
Richard Hasen, the William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Robert Pastor, Executive Director, Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform
Paul Vinovich, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration


Featured Resources
This report provides the results from an evaluation of five projects to improve election data collection in 2008. Overall, the grantees increased their level of core data collection, improving to 80 percent of the core data from less than half in 2006.
Tova Andrea Wang makes the case for modernizing voter registration practices in the states, in the context of the upcoming gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. Both states have large percentages of recently naturalized and first generation Americans.
The Committee to Modernize Voter Registration, composed of former state and federal lawmakers, state election administrators, election law experts, and academics was recently formed to advocate for an automated, transferable system to replace today's out-of-date and patchwork system.
This report examines how statewide permanent voter registration is implemented in several states across the country, and suggests that this policy should be incorporated into all states' voter registration reforms.
This article explores the constitutionality of poll watcher statutes, arguing that laws permitting their presence at voting locations are permissible under the U.S. Constitution.
Research Projects
Election Law @ Moritz, run through Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, contains both explanation and commentary on a wealth of election reform issues from a legal perspective.
electionline.org provides daily news updates on election reform issues, as well as deeper analysis of selected topics, including recent reports on voter registration, recount procedures, and the progress in implementing the Help America Vote Act since 2002.
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice.
Project Vote is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) that works to empower, educate, and mobilize low-income, minority, youth, and other marginalized and under-represented voters.
As part of its broader research focus on elections, campaign ethics, campaign finance, and the legislative process, the Center for American Politics and Citizenship at the University of Maryland is engaged in research projects on voting technology and ballot design specifically.
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
www.aei.org
The Brookings Institution
www.brookings.edu
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