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Is Everyone Else Doing It? Indiana’s Voter Identification Law in International Perspective
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Tova Andrea Wang,
Frederic Charles Schaffer,
Harvard Law and Policy Review,
10/26/2009
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Since the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, requiring
people to present identification to vote has become one of the most
controversial and divisive issues in election reform. HAVA necessitates,
among other things, that members of a small group of people—new voters
registering by mail—establish their identity in one of many ways.1 While
about half of the states in the country today apply just that requirement,
many states have used the HAVA identification provision to justify additional,
more stringent measures. At present, twenty-four states require all
voters to present identification when casting a ballot in person. Download the report (PDF).
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| > All Election Reform Publications | |
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Low Turnout in Virginia: It's Also About Felon Disenfranchisement
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Tova Andrea Wang,
The Century Foundation,
11/9/2009
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Lost in all the political spin around the elections this week is the issue of, once again, abominable turnout. The conventional wisdom is that this is always the case for an “off year” election, as though that were in itself some legitimate justification or reason not to care. The importance of our democracy tells us it is not. The situation in Virginia was particularly disheartening. But Virginia’s new governor, Robert McDonnell, can take a step towards doing something about that. Continue Reading on the Taking Note Blog.
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Still Waiting
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Richard C. Leone,
The Century Foundation,
8/27/2009
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Recently, The New York Times published a story about the long delays in selecting and confirming appointees to the top 500 jobs in the Obama administration. As of the end of August, only 43% of those positions had been filled. This statistic reflects a larger reality that has been a problem for several decades as sharper partisanship and other factors have made the whole process more difficult and the results less satisfactory. Continue Reading on the Taking Note Blog.
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Voting in 2008: Lessons Learned
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Tova Andrea Wang,
The Century Foundation,
11/10/2008
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Much has been made of the fact that there was no catastrophic meltdown in the election system this year. The fact that problems were not as pervasive as they might have been is due to the hard work of the voting rights community and election administrators in the months and even years before the election and the enthusiasm and persistence of voters. At the same time, thousands and thousands of voters faced unacceptable barriers to voting this year, demonstrating that much more work remains to be done. Continue Reading on the Taking Note Blog.
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The Battle for Pennsylvania
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Ruy Teixeira,
The Century Foundation,
11/3/2008
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The McCain campaign is putting a lot of resources in Pennsylvania, on the theory that this is their best shot at turning a big 2004 blue state red and that they can't win without such a takeaway given the rest of the electoral map. This theory may well be correct but how plausible is it that they could actually succeed in this effort. Not very. First and most obviously, they are far behind in the polls. The Pollster.com trend average still puts their current deficit in the Keystone State at around 8 points, despite some tightening of the race in the last couple of weeks. Continue Reading on the Taking Note Blog.
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Snapshot of Student Voting
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Kristen J. Oshyn,
Tova Andrea Wang,
The Century Foundation,
9/11/2008
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In an election cycle that witnessed an increase in young voter turnout across the country during the primaries, Rock the Vote (RTV) predicts that young voters will turn out in such high numbers in four states in November that their votes will impact the outcome of those states’ elections. The four states RTV predicts will feel the greatest impact of young voters are Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado and Ohio. As a forthcoming report by Common Cause and The Century Foundation, details, of the many young voters out there, a significant number of them are also student voters, who too often must confront unique obstacles to voting. Continue reading on the Taking Note Blog.
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| > All Election Reform News & Commentary | |
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| The Incredible Youth Vote
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The Century Foundation
- 7/22/2008
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The 2008 primaries saw a dramatic increase in the number of young people turning out to vote, causing many to dub this year “The Year of the Youth Vote.” Will young voters continue to be concerned about issues raised by the coming election? Is this voting bloc strong enough to determine who will win the 2008 presidential election?
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| Color Bind: Race in the 2008 Election and Beyond
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The Century Foundation's 2008 Public Policy Lunch Series
- 8/5/2008
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Barack Obama's success so far in the 2008 election cycle has fostered optimistic rhetoric in mainstream media about race relations in the United States. But does Obama's candidacy transform Martin Luther King Jr.'s American dream into a reality? A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that Americans are sharply divided by race on their views of Senator Obama and the state of race relations. In addition, with an increased presence of other minority groups, issues regarding race in political and social life are no longer black and white. What role does race play in the 2008 election and beyond? Can America ever truly be a color-blind society?
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| 90 Years of Progress
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- 12/1/2009
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This year marked the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of The Century Foundation (which was known for most of its history as the Twentieth Century Fund). Our founder, Edward Filene, created this organization with the goal of supporting studies and analysis that could lead to constructive action on our nation’s public policy. That heritage has compelled us to educate, provoke, and develop better answers when evidence and reason show that public debates are badly off track. Over the past nine decades, we have called attention to facts and analyses to correct widespread misconceptions and provide policymakers with new ideas for addressing the challenges facing the nation.
We have created this video to provide a glimpse into our story and how it is intertwined with America’s story for much of the twentieth century and beyond.
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| Counting Us Out? Why Everyone Should Care about the Census Undercount
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Demos, The Century Foundation and more
- 12/15/2009
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As Census workers begin their outreach, efforts to reach the nation's nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants have already raised concerns over whether there will be an accurate tally of immigrant residents, both documented and undocumented. Immigrant communities clearly have much at stake in ensuring that their members are fully counted. Why should citizens care about whether non-citizens are counted?
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| > All Election Reform Events | |
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| Nevada Gambles On New Voter Mobilization Strategies For Latinos And Wins
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3/26/2008
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In this year’s highly contested race for the presidency, Latino voters have received unprecedented media attention as a group that could hold the balance of the election in its hands. However, Latinos can only realize their potential to become a major force in American politics this election year and beyond if they participate in numbers commensurate with their dramatically increased presence in the population. Continue to press release (PDF) here.
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| This Election: Deceptive Practices 2.0?
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10/20/2008
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Washington – Amid daily reports of voter suppression and dirty tricks in the 2008 Presidential election, major civil rights organizations today released a report exposing a worrying new generation of online deceptive practices designed to mislead and intimidate voters. The report, released by Common Cause, The Century Foundation and The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is entitled Deceptive Practices 2.0: Legal And Policy Responses and describes potential online dirty tricks to disseminate false or misleading information over the Internet.
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| Voting in 2008: A close look at voting preparedness in 10 swing states
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9/16/2008
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16 September’08, Washington, DC—As election officials brace for record-breaking voter turnout on Election Day, a close examination of voting preparedness in 10 swing states shows that significant problems in the basic functions of the American election administration system persist, and in a few cases have worsened over the last few years, a new report by Common Cause and The Century Foundation shows. &nbs
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| > All Election Reform Press Releases | |
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| Visit The Century Foundation's Reformelections.org for Election Reform issues in depth |
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| Election 2006 |
| Constructing ways to make the 2006 elections more accessible to the voting public. |
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| Improving Elections |
| Ideas for making voting fairer, easier, and more transparent. |
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| New Media, New Voters |
| The candidates for the 2008 election and their supporting organizations are taking advantage of a new tool: the Internet. |
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| Voter ID Laws |
| Examining the arguments for voter ID and how ID requirements can lead to disenfranchisement. |
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| The Help America Vote Act |
| Analysis of major election reform law enacted in 2002. |
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| The 2004 Election |
| The Presidential election revealed deep flaws in the nation's voting systems. |
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| Two National Elections in One Year: Early Presidential Preference Primaries and the 2008 Election Cycle
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Advancement Project,
4/17/2007
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Advancement Project released a voter protection primer that explores the ramifications of the momentum of frontloading the 2008 elections as more states are moving their presidential preference primaries earlier in the election cycle. Approximately 34 states will cast their vote in the presidential preference primary on or prior to Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Of the thirty four states, only seven states will conduct either a Democratic or Republican caucus/primary before February 5, 2007. This means that on February 5, 2008, 27 states will conduct their primary/caucus turning the traditional “Super Tuesday” of March into a “Super Duper” Tuesday of February.
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| Is Everyone Else Doing It? Indiana’s Voter Identification Law in International Perspective
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Tova Andrea Wang,
Frederic Charles Schaffer,
Harvard Law and Policy Review,
10/26/2009
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Since the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, requiring
people to present identification to vote has become one of the most
controversial and divisive issues in election reform. HAVA necessitates,
among other things, that members of a small group of people—new voters
registering by mail—establish their identity in one of many ways.1 While
about half of the states in the country today apply just that requirement,
many states have used the HAVA identification provision to justify additional,
more stringent measures. At present, twenty-four states require all
voters to present identification when casting a ballot in person. Download the report (PDF).
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| VTP Conference on Voter Authentication and Registration
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The goal of this conference, featuring TCF's Tova Andrea Wang, was to explore the current state of knowledge about the effects of voter identification and registration, procedures on election administration and voting behavior, and to discuss the future directions of research, policy and technology. The conference was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, MA at the media lab, on October 5-6 2006.
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| America Goes to the Polls: A Report on Voter Turnout in the 2006
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Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network,
2/1/2007
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This report looks at official election results from across the country to answer some basic questions about voter turnout in the 2006 elections, questions like: Which states had the highest turnout? Which states had the greatest growth or decline in turnout compared to the last midterm election? What is the impact on voter participation of increased political competition or Election Day registration?
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| > All Election Reform Related Research |
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Taking Note
