… Professors Stephen Ansolabehere and Brian Schaffner have done a tremendous service by putting data and numbers behind what we have already long known about turnout: When it falls off in non-presidential years, Democrats suffer disproportionately. They eschew the badly flawed self-reports in surveys, using actual turnout data recorded on […] Read more »
California Just Made It Easier for Millions To Vote in 2016
California will begin automatically registering eligible citizens to vote. … The state estimates that there are 6.6 eligible but unregistered voters in the state who could be impacted by the change. CONT. Emily DeRuy, National Journal Read more »
The case for universal voting
William Galston and E.J. Dionne, Jr. make the case for universal voting – a new electoral system in which voting would be regarded as a required, civic duty. Why not treat showing up at the polls in the same way we treat a jury summons, which compels us to present […] Read more »
Washington State: Race, Justice & Democracy
KCTS 9 and The Elway Poll conducted a 400-person sample poll of registered Washington voters on the subject of race relations. Results show that voters are divided on the current condition (good or bad) of national race relations, while 86% think race relations in their own communities are good. In […] Read more »
How Jimmy Carter championed civil rights — and Ronald Reagan didn’t
… Carter is largely remembered as a feckless leader; even his own party tends to ignore his time in the White House. But he had a strong record on civil rights, and his work to advance the cause would have been far more consequential if his successor, Ronald Reagan, had […] Read more »
Book Revew: ‘Give Us the Ballot,’ by Ari Berman
… “The revolution of 1965 spawned an equally committed group of counterrevolutionaries,” Berman writes in “Give Us the Ballot.” “Since the V.R.A.’s passage, they have waged a decades-long campaign to restrict voting rights.” Berman argues that these counterrevolutionaries have “in recent years, controlled a majority on the Supreme Court” and […] Read more »