Albany, NY — Members of the Joint Legislative Conference Committee on HAVA Implementation have made substantial progress. However, key issues remain unresolved.
At a news conference today representatives of good government, voting rights, and civil rights organizations voiced concern that legislation proposed by the Senate leadership would undermine HAVA's most important purpose - making sure that every eligible voter gets to vote.
New York, NY/Los Angeles, CA — A new report, Drawing Lines: A Public Interest Guide to Real Redistricting Reform, released today by Demos and the Center for Governmental Studies, shows that current legislation and proposed initiatives on redistricting all fail to sufficiently address the needs of the public, and suggests clear guidelines for much fairer redistricting.
New York, NY — Advocates for democracy had one strong reason to cheer on election night: higher voter turnout, especially among youth, reversed a decades-old trend of low electoral participation. Although they are still counting votes in almost every state, it is clear that about 120 million will have voted in the election — an increase of 15 million voters from 2000.
New York, NY — Today Demos, a leading, national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting democracy, voiced its strong support for rulings by U.S. District Judges Susan Dlott and John Adams barring all voter "challengers" from Ohio voting places.
New York, NY — Today Demos, a national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting democracy, issued a statement regarding the brewing voter registration scandal in Nevada, where political consulting firm Sproul and Associates, sometimes operating as Voter Outreach of America, has been accused of destroying registration forms completed during a months-long voter registration drive.
New York, NY — Today Demos, a national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting democracy, voiced its strong support for South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson's recent decisions regarding counting voter registration applications without "double affirmations" of citizenship.
New York, NY — Anticipating a razor-thin election Nov. 2, many election officials and political commentators are making alarmist and inaccurate claims that "new" voter registration procedures will enable voter fraud.
However, election fraud is at most a minor problem across the 50 U.S. states, and does not affect election outcomes, according to a 2003 study being re-released today by Demos, titled "Securing the Vote: A Report on Election Fraud."
New York, NY — Today Miles Rapoport, President of Demos, a nonpartisan voting rights organization, and former Connecticut Secretary of State, issued the following statement on the dramatic nation-wide shortage of poll workers:
"Election officials across the country are facing critical shortages in poll workers, falling more than 500,000 workers short of what's needed nationally. When record numbers of Americans show up on Election Day, including many new voters, we must be prepared to handle the influx.
While Florida’s purges of felons from voter rolls in 2000 have received national attention, little is known about the procedures other states use. To shed some light on these procedures, we surveyed the purge processes of 15 states.
New York, NY — Today Demos, a national, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting democracy, voiced its strong support for Iowa Secretary of State Chet Culver's recent decisions regarding how to handle provisional ballots and voter registration applications.
New York, NY — More than 200,000 votes cast on November 2nd could be invalidated due to improperly and illegally applied provisional balloting procedures, according to a new report released today by Demos, a nonpartisan public policy research organization based in New York.
NEW YORK — Millions of eligible voters may be prevented from casting their ballots on November 2nd due to non-existent or flawed procedures used by state election officials to purge felons from voter rolls, according to a new report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and Demos, as part of the Right to Vote Campaign.
Washington DC/NY, NY — Today Demos and Project Vote, two leading, national nonprofit organizations dedicated to voter registration, criticized the Department of Justice for failing to remind states of their responsibilities under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to offer voter registration services in public assistance agencies.
New York, NY/Washington, DC — Today two leading national voting rights organizations, Demos and Project Vote, asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take action to improve states' compliance with the Nation Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and ensure easy access to voter registration for thousands of citizens.
New York, NY. — Today a New York City-wide coalition of celebrities, community-based organizations, civil rights groups and criminal justice activists held a press conference to publicly launch its campaign, Release the Vote: Unlock the Block. Forty-two organizations have endorsed the initiative (listing attached).
Unlock the Block is mounting a major public information campaign to educate, mobilize and register thousands of people formerly incarcerated for a felony conviction, their families and their communities. See www.unlocktheblock.org.
New York, NY — Demos has published two new reports which provide compelling research, analysis, and timely information on felony disenfranchisement laws, and their impact on American democracy.
New York, NY — Propositions to enact Election Day Registration (EDR) in California and Colorado were defeated yesterday, preventing citizens from gaining the ability to register and vote on Election Day. The promise of EDR is that every citizen, including significant portions of the population that have traditionally been marginalized, have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process.