BOSTON - Citing clear evidence that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is failing to provide low-income residents with a legally-mandated opportunity to register to vote, attorneys from Demos, Project Vote, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association sent a pre-litigation notice letter on December 8, 2011 to Secretary of State William F. Galvin, on behalf of New England United for Justice. The letter was also forwarded to the state’s human services officials.
Baltimore, MD – Strongly contending that the Republican-sponsored challenge to Maryland’s landmark 2010 civil rights law, the “No Representation Without Population Act,” runs directly contrary to its plaintiffs’ goal of increased representation for Maryland’s African-American community, a coalition of civil rights groups today announces that an amicus brief has been filed to counter misinformation and defend the landmark civil rights law.
Albany, NY – New York Supreme Court Justice Eugene Devine today upheld New York’s law ending prison-based gerrymandering in the Little v. LATFOR lawsuit. His decision squarely rejects the plaintiffs’ claim that the New York law violated various provisions of the New York State Constitution.
New York, NY—Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3463, a bill that would effectively terminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and federal financing for presidential election campaigns. Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization committed to building an America which achieves its highest democratic ideals, vehemently opposes this legislation.
NEW YORK -- In a new analysis released today, national policy center Demos announced a major milestone in its work to build a more inclusive democracy: Across five states, more than one million additional low-income Americans, the most vulnerable of “the 99%”, have filled out voter registration forms at public assistance agencies since 2007.
Proof that when laws to protect peoples’ democratic rights are put into practice, they can have a major impact on bringing more voices into the political process.
The existence of the U.S. middle class is in peril. Young people between the ages of 18 and 34 are living in a more fragile economic environment than 30 years ago. If something isn't done to help them lead more economically stable lives, they'll never make it into the middle class.
That's the conclusion of a new report "The State of Young America" from Demos, a combination think-tank and advocacy organization based in New York.
A coalition of civil rights groups are preparing an amicus brief to defend the “No Representation Without Population Act” challenged in Fletcher v. Lamone. Maryland’s first-in-the-nation law requiring the state to count prisoners at their home addresses is protective of minority voting rights.
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.
WASHINGTON— The assault on the right to vote witnessed in 2011 is historic in terms of its geographic scope and ferocity, according to new testimony submitted by national policy center Demos to today’s House Judiciary Committee forum entitled “Excluded from Democracy: The Impact of Recent State Voting Law Changes.”
Occupy Wall Street has, in the words of John Paul Rollert, “come to embody a common sense that something is wrong with American capitalism.” The problem Rollert points to is not with capitalism itself, but with a particular American version that has ceased to work for broad cross-sections of its population. Given America’s Depression-level income inequality and near-record levels of public and private indebtedness, it is extremely tempting to focus on bad outcomes as the problem.
Do Republicans in Congress care about creating jobs -- which polls say is the number one issue for voters -- or about ideological purity? The ongoing debate on Capitol Hill over President Obama’s $447 billion jobs package offers a crystal clear answer to that question.
NEW YORK- While they believe that higher education is more important today than it was for their parents’ generation, most U.S. adults age 18 to 34 also view college as harder to afford than just five years ago.
NEW YORK-- On Tuesday, voters in Maine decisively voiced their support for fair and open elections. By a 3 to 2 margin, voters restored the option of Same Day Registration, rejecting the Republican-sponsored effort to make voting more difficult. Miles Rapoport, President of Demos, former Secretary of the State of Connecticut and long-time Same Day Registration advocate, issued the following statement:
At a telephone news conference this Wednesday, three national policy organizations will release the results of a new nationwide, bi-partisan survey of young adults ages 18-34 about higher education’s importance and affordability, student debt, and Congressional proposals to cut Pell Grants or charge interest on federal student loans while borrowers are still in school.
The citizens of Maine will be voting tomorrow whether to keep the same-day registration system that they’ve had for nearly four decades. Since 1973, Maine voters have been able to walk into a polling place or a municipal clerk’s office on Election Day and register to vote.
Occupy Wall Street has already accomplished a great deal by shifting public discourse in this country. Instead of focusing on the need for austerity and deficit reduction, attention is rightly being directed at economic disparities and the deep structural problems that the United States faces.