Announcement: Two leading national public policy and advocacy organizations sign affiliation agreement

New York, NY and Boston, MA — This week, Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action and the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) announced that they have signed an affiliation agreement. Longtime allies on national and state election reform campaigns, the Demos / NVRI collaboration will combine the strategy and resources of two of the nation's leading public policy and advocacy organizations.

Demos, a 6-year old research and advocacy group with headquarters in New York City, has been at the forefront of important election reform policy change since the 2000 elections. NVRI, based in Boston, is a non-partisan legal center which recently argued a ground-breaking campaign finance case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Working in tandem, they will be able to leverage their combined research, advocacy and litigation efforts to improve America's civic and political systems to address the challenges of the 21st century.

"We are thrilled about this affiliation," said Miles Rapoport, President of Demos. "We have worked with NVRI on many initiatives over the years, from implementing fair and solution-oriented election reform to building a national case for sensible campaign finance laws, and have found them to be a great partner. Their goals for America's democratic system couldn't be closer to ours."

Stuart Comstock-Gay, Executive Director of the National Voting Rights Institute, added, "This collaboration is a logical step for both organizations, as we blend NVRI's litigation expertise with the tremendous analysis and advocacy work of Demos. It will also allow us to work in tandem on a range of issues related to American democracy — from NVRI's historical work on campaign finance and voting rights, to Demos' national leadership reforming and enhancing election administration, promoting sensible voter registration practices and advancing policy for fair ballot access. This is a win-win."

As part of the collaboration, Comstock-Gay will also assume directorship of Demos' Democracy Program. Former Democracy Program director Steve Carbó will move into a senior program director role, where he will develop new long-range election and democracy reform projects for the collaboration. NVRI's legal team of Brenda Wright and Lisa Danetz will expand their work to encompass a range of reform initiatives.

The two organizations will also begin exploring new joint programmatic efforts outside of the election reform field. NVRI staff will continue to operate from their Boston office, which will serve as a base for Demos staff working on joint programs under the collaboration agreement.

For more information: archive.demos.org or www.nvri.org.

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