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Hope and Experience: Election Reform through the Lens of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project
JUNE 29, 2010
Hope and Experience: Election Reform through the Lens of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project
We launched the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project in June 2005 with the encouragement and financial support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Five years later we bring the project to a close. We take this opportunity to reflect on the state of election administration in the United States almost a decade after the extended and controversial Florida vote count in the 2000 presidential election and suggest how additional changes in technology, election law and administrative practices might further strengthen American elections in the years ahead.
Featured Resources
The Indiana Election Division published its Outreach Library for the 2010 elections. Among the resources available for both voters and election officials are guides for military and overseas voters, voter identification requirement outlines, and a handbook for election officials.
Convened to provide guidance to the state of Utah in the areas of election law, the Commission made recommendations regarding voter registration. Joining a number of other groups in proposing automatic voter registration, the Commission adopted all of its recommendations unanimously.
This NASS document provides a state-level review of voter registration list maintenance practices.
The Research Database on the U.S. Voting System and Voting Technology provides access to empirical and analytical research about voting and elections to inform evidence-based reforms.
In a survey conducted with public assistance agencies in 40 states and the District of Columbia, Dēmos asked about the feasibility of implementing an upgrade of voter registration databases based upon the records kept by these agencies.
Research Projects
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 mission of the VoTeR center is to advise state agencies in the use of voting technologies and to investigate voting solutions and voting equipment to develop and recommend safe use procedures for their usage in elections.
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.
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.
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 American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
www.aei.org
The Brookings Institution
www.brookings.edu
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