Election Day Registration (EDR) is a variety of Same Day Registration (SDR) that allows eligible voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day. This “how-to guide” on EDR implementation and administration distills election officials’ first-hand insights into the effective implementation of EDR. We focused here on key issues such as poll worker recruiting and training, avoiding confusion and congestion at the polls, serving special populations, and preserving the integrity of elections.
Democracy works as intended when all citizens are able to participate and make their voices heard. While the United States has come a long way in expanding the franchise over the past 220 years, barriers to participation still exist and these barriers disproportionately affect low-income citizens. In 2008, the registration gap between low-income and high-income citizens was over 19 percentage points.
America needs an election process that is efficient, trustworthy, and welcoming. We need a renewed sense of citizenship and service, and a government that people can believe in.
Voter registrations in Virginia public assistance agencies declined by 87 percent between 1995-1996 and 2005-2006, despite increased enrollment in public benefit programs like food stamps. Field investigators in early 2008 confirmed that state offices were not offering voter registration, as required by the National Voter Registration Act. Working cooperatively with Demos and its state partners, Virginia has achieved a dramatic change of course. The first several data reports indicate an eightfold increase in voter registrations.
In July 2008, 49 advocates, scholars, and thinkers met in Washington, D.C. and came to agreement on the outlines of a broad agenda for democracy reform. In the weeks that followed, the participants broke into workgroups and developed the recommendations outlined in this document. Our ideas rest on a set of shared convictions about what democracy ought to mean. We envision an America that encourages the maximum levels of voter turnout, practices people-centered governance, and actively seeks and genuinely values everyone’s participation.
Report authors R. Michael Alvarez and Jonathan Nagler have analyzed the likely impact on voter turnout should New Mexico adopt Same Day Registration (SDR). Under the system proposed in New Mexico, eligible voters who miss the current 28-day deadline for registering by mail may be able to register to vote during the state's early voting period. The availability of Same Day Registration procedures should give voters who have not previously registered the opportunity to vote.
It has been nearly two decades since the credit card industry was deregulated with the promise of bringing greater competition and lower prices to consumers. Under the shield of deregulation, credit card companies have shifted the cost of credit to individuals least able to afford it. As this report shows, low-income individuals, African Americans, Latinos and single females bear the brunt of the cost of credit card deregulation through excessive fees and high interest rates.
Americans carry over $800 Billion in credit card debt. Using most recent data from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances, Borrowing to Make Ends Meet exposes this and other disturbing trends in American families’ debts and financial assets. The report breaks down debt and asset data by age, race and income demographics, and shows how financial fragility makes the most vulnerable groups of Americans even more so.
Top Facts:
A Fallible 'Fail-Safe' provides a snapshot of provisional balloting problems experienced by voters across the nation in November 2006, as reported by Election Protection volunteers. While provisional ballots may comprise only a fraction of the national vote, as this report shows, they determined the outcome of various electoral races in 2006.
With the governor Chet Culver's pen stroke, Iowa became the eighth state in the nation to extend the franchise to otherwise eligible citizens who had not yet registered to vote at the close of voter registration deadlines. This report recounts the successful implementation of Election Day Registration in Iowa.
Since the 2000 election, a historic effort has been underway in the United States to strengthen voting systems across all 50 states and to address obstacles to broader electoral participation. At both the federal and state levels, however, efforts to advance a reform agenda have been frequently complicated by heated debates over the integrity of voting systems — and by allegations of widespread election fraud, and its cohort, voter fraud.
In the Red or In the Black? looks at whether household savings serve to protect families from incurring unsecured debt, and in turn, whether the presence of unsecured debt acts as a barrier to savings and wealth accumulation.
When Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993, its goals were to “increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for Federal office” and “protect the integrity of the electoral process.”Yet, while most states created effective programs for mail-in and Department of Motor Vehicles-based registration processes, many neglected the NVRA’s social service agency requirements (detailed in Section 7 of the Act). This paper outlines and highlights the outstanding and thorough work of the North Carolina Board of Elections in responding to ev
Even before the downturn, millions of households were experiencing difficulties meeting the most basic expenses. Now, as families experience declining home values and tightened credit markets, many are falling behind on their mortgage and credit card payments.
To increase postsecondary success among low- to moderate-income students, we must reform financial aid and provide additional financial supports to help students cover the cost of living expenses.
"We've got to deal with the conflicts. If I hire S&P or Moody's to be my consultant and show me how I can do this and that to get an investment-grade rating or [an] even higher rating, they obviously have a conflict of interest there."
"That's right. I think the compensation model... where the issuer pays for the rating is really at the heart of the conflict problem..."
In today's knowledge-based economy, a college degree is a necessary qualification for entry to the middle class. Over the last 30 years, as real wages for workers with only a high school diploma have fallen, the life outcomes for those with college degrees have diverged from those with only high school degrees. In 1977, for example, there was only a 6 percentage-point difference in home ownership rates between those with college educations and those without. Today, there is a 20 percentage-point difference.
Over the past decade, rents and home prices in major cities across the country have escalated rapidly. As young adults transition from college into the workforce, already owing an average of $20,000 in student loan debt, securing affordable housing in the current market can pose an overwhelming challenge.
