New York, NY — Demos: A Network for Ideas & Action is pleased to announce that Professor Benjamin R. Barber, renowned political theorist and expert on global democracy and citizenship, has joined Demos as a Distinguished Senior Fellow.
New York, NY — More than three-quarters of a million Americans were able to cast their ballot in November 2006 because of Election Day Registration (EDR), according to a new report published this week by Demos.
Washington, DC — Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines, once considered essential to ensuring private and independent voting booth access for voters with disabilities, often do not work as promised, according to a new report published today.
New York, NY — As health care costs continue to rise faster than incomes, families are turning to credit cards to pay for medical care, according to new research by Demos and the Access Project. The public policy groups published the findings today in a report entitled "Borrowing to Stay Healthy: How Credit Card Debt Is Related to Medical Expenses."
New York, NY — Today's young adults are feeling the full, deep impact of a massive shift in the US economy, and are no longer able to start and sustain a family, build a career and grow assets in the same manner as the previous generation, according to a new report series published today by Demos, a national, nonpartisan public policy center.
New York, NY — Homeowners have been tapping into their home equity to get the cash needed to pay down credit card debt incurred not for luxury expenses, but for basic needs. This strategy leaves them on precarious financial footing after two years of interest rate hikes and the largest drop in home prices in 35 years, according to House of Cards 2006 Update: Still Refinancing The American Dream, a report published today by Demos, a non-partisan public policy organization based in New York.
In response to ever-increasing financial pressures, families have come to depend on high-cost credit as a way to bridge the gap between stagnant or decreasing incomes and rising costs. How are families coping with their new burden? To hang on to the American Dream, to be part of the ownership society, homeowners are depleting their home equity to pay off a growing mountain of unsecured debt—a financial strategy fraught with serious consequences.
New York, NY — In communities across the country, voters could be subject to intimidation and a variety of suppressive tactics meant to keep them from casting a ballot. Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy center, published the details of these potential challenges to voting rights in a new briefing paper this week.
In the final days of the 2006 campaign, as in any election year, citizen interest is peaking as election news--and debates on the issues--becomes more pervasive in the media. Unfortunately for America's voters, in all but eight states (one of which does not require voter registration) , if you are not already registered to vote in this week's election, it is too late. There are seven states, however, where eligible voters are not hampered by arbitrary deadlines, no matter when they become engaged by an election, and can register to vote on Election Day itself.
Political candidates win elections by generating more votes than their opponents. A vigorous and superior get-out-the-vote campaign is commonly understood to be the key to success. A less recognized but all-too-familiar alternative tactic is to intimidate their opponents supporters and suppress their votes. Voter intimidation and vote suppression campaigns are often mounted in communities of color, where voter participation is more tenuous. Few states have enacted clear and effective prohibitions against these abuses.
New York, NY — Across the nation, states are failing to meet a Federal mandate to boost voter registration among low-income Americans by offering registration opportunities in public assistance offices — a requirement established by Congress under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy center, published the findings in a new briefing paper this week.
Representational Inequality: Bad for Democracy Economic inequality in America has been spiraling out of control in recent decades. The income gap between the rich and the poor in America has steadily increased since the early 20th century and is at its largest in 40 years. Unfortunately, this also translates into political inequality. According to the 2004 U.S. Census, 59 percent of citizens in households making less than $15,000 a year were registered to vote versus 85 percent of those in households making $75,000 or more.
New York, NY — Across the United States, a long-term under-investment in the people who make the mechanics of our elections function properly, and ensure that voters have proper access to ballots and functioning machines, is expected to be a key problem on Election Day, according to a new briefing paper by Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy and research center.
If elections are the foundation of our democracy, then poll workers are the gears and wheels that make the mechanics of democracy function on Election Day. Regrettably, this human factor is often overlooked and under-supported. States squeak by each year with a bare minimum of poll workers who receive inadequate training for an increasingly complex task. Recent surveys, press accounts, and troubled primary elections attest to the problem.
New York, NY — Today, 100 million Americans are involved with organizations or movements engaged in social change. Despite vast and quickly improving methods of communications and interconnectivity, many who work to "make a difference" are hobbled by technical barriers, often because there is no roadmap to connect these new information sharing methods.
New York, NY — More than 5 million Americans are directly denied the right to vote, and millions more are misinformed about their eligibility to vote, due to a confusing and archaic national patchwork of "felony disfranchisement" laws, according to a new briefing paper by Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy and research center.
Felony disfranchisement is the practice of denying people with felony convictions the right to vote. The American tradition of states determining their own election laws has led to a national patchwork of policies and practices that result in de jure and de facto denial of the vote based on felony conviction status Currently, most states impose some voting restrictions on people with felony convictions, ranging from a prohibition from voting while incarcerated to a virtual lifetime ban.
New York, NY — Millions of disabled and language-minority American citizens face impediments to voting because many states do not meet federal ballot and polling place access requirements, according to a new briefing paper by Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy and research center.
NEWARK, NJ — In an effort to increase voter participation in the Garden State, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey and other high-profile voter rights' advocates, during a public forum today, will urge New Jersey to reform state election law to allow residents in future elections to register to vote up to and including Election Day. This proposal, if adopted, would replacing the current system under which anyone who registers less than 21 days before an election is barred from voting until the following election.