April 6, 2011 – Demos and the Prison Policy Initiative, two national pro-democracy groups, expressed serious objections today to a lawsuit filed in state court that seeks to reinstate the discredited policy of miscounting incarcerated New Yorkers when state and local legislative districts are redrawn this year.
Demos Senior Campaign Strategist, Vijay Das, gave the following prepared remarks urging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of protecting the freedom to vote.
On the manner in which incarcerated populations are counted for purposes of redistricting. This issue has become increasingly important to the fairness of redistricting around the country.
Recommendations for the Special Joint Committee on Redistricting as it seeks to assess lessons learned after the 2010 Census and to set goals for the next Census redistricting process.
NEW YORK – As budget debates continue to play out at the state level, it is apparent that Americans everywhere are still suffering from the long-tail of the recession and need jobs, not austerity measures that will likely reverse emergent economic gains. A new report by the policy center Demos addresses this need head-on, calling for an affordable and efficient federal jobs program that could meet critical community and national needs while providing meaningful employment for millions of people who lost their jobs in the Great Recession.
Thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony regarding the damage that Citizens United and the rise of Super PACs has done to our system of democratic government. In the text below I will discuss why rules that govern the role of money in politics are important to our democracy; the impact of Citizens United and related decisions on our electoral system; and what Congress can and must do to promote the core American value of political equality.
Testimony of Demos' Democracy Program Legal Director on restoring contribution limits in Vermont, delivered before the Vermont House Government Operations Committee on February 5, 2008.
By passing this proposed constitutional amendment, and laying the groundwork to enact SDR, Maryland would become the 10th state to permit eligible citizens to both register and vote on the same day.
By enacting H.B. 5024, Connecticut would become the 10th state to permit eligible citizens to both register and vote on Election Day and/or during the early voting period.
The assault on the right to vote witnessed in 2011 is historic in terms of its geographic scope and intensity. Legislation enacted in states across the country to require government-issued photo identification and/or prove citizenship to register to vote, make voter registration more difficult, and curtail early voting is nothing short of blatant vote suppression, the likes of which has not been seen in generations.
The Veterans Voting Support Act required that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) agree to state designations of its facilities as voter registration agencies under Section 7 of the NVRA.
Although photo ID and proof of citizenship proposals are offered as necessary to prevent fraud in elections, we know that the facts do not warrant these extreme measures.
New York, NY — As new unemployment figures show a still-staggering 9 percent of Americans out of work, a new report from the policy center Demos examines the degree that low income American families use credit to weather economic shocks, and draws out the impact of credit card debt on families' long-term financial stability.
Testimony of Demos Counsel Lisa J. Danetz before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Elections on the challenges the National Voter Registration Act presents to public assistance agencies.
The No Representation Without Population Act would correct within the state of Maryland a long-standing flaw in the decennial Census that counts incarcerated people as residents of the wrong location.