Engaging State Legislatures in Election Reform |
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In response to the historic and unprecedented 2000 presidential election and the following systemic crises affecting voter confidence, legislatures aggressively and comprehensively pursued election reform. Unfortunately, in general, they have far too often had to act without broad knowledge of the innovations adopted by other states to improve voting. A key problem immediately following the 2000 election was that not enough sound research even existed on alternatives for improving elections. While work still remains on that front, the issue now seems to be analyzing available research and translating it into materials accessible to policymakers.
Since August 2007, NCSL has been actively working to meet this critical need with support provided by the Pew Charitable Trusts. To this end, NCSL in partnership with Make Voting Work, an initiative of the Pew Center on the States, is working to engage state policy makers in meaningful election reform by providing them with customized, nonpartisan research and analysis. Accordingly, Engaging State Legislatures in Election Reform (ESLER) aims to provide critical research data and best practices to legislatures when they need it. NCSL in conjunction with Make Voting Work is also facilitating a network among state legislators and legislative staff who are most involved in tackling ongoing election reform. Consistent with NCSL's mission of service to legislatures, an election reform newsletter, The Canvass (PDF), was established to provide a forum for America's ideas on election reform. We welcome your comments and opinions.
Contact:
NCSL
E.S.L.E.R Project
Elections Section
7700 East First Place
Denver, CO 80230
(303) 364-7700
elections-info@ncsl.org
www.ncsl.org |
