Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), voters whose names cannot be found on the voter rolls on Election Day or who cannot meet HAVA’s new voter identification requirement must be provided a provisional ballot. These provisional votes are subsequently counted if local election officials are able to verify that the individual is a legitimate voter under state law. With predictions of record turnout, including millions of first-time voters, provisional ballots may play a significant role in the 2008 election.
The Veterans Voting Support Act required that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) agree to state designations of its facilities as voter registration agencies under Section 7 of the NVRA.
All over America, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate women last month: August marked the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment's ratification, which gave women the right to vote. Women's Equality Day, which was on August 26, commemorated that victory. There are now more women in the U.S. Congress than ever (88) and 2008 was a year when a woman came within a hair's breadth of becoming a major ticket presidential nominee.
Americans are confused and anxious about trade and globalization. On the one hand, many voters fear for their jobs and living standards, worrying about rising competition from developing nations. On the other hand, many Americans see clear benefits from globalization, believe that the United States must engage in the global economy, and want poorer nations to develop. Trading Up offers a new framework for understanding and responding to this phenomenon — one that balances a commitment to markets and open trade with dramatic efforts to reduce inequities and insecurities.
Election Day Registration (EDR), which allows eligible voters to register and cast a ballot on Election Day, is a reform that reduces the unnecessary disfranchisement of eligible voters that may be caused by arbitrary registration deadlines.
In remarks recently delivered at a community ministry in Zanesville, Ohio, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged to revive George W. Bush’s “faith-based initiative.” It was to be Bush’s signature domestic policy, increasing the role of smaller faith-based providers in government social service programs. The surprising announcement strengthened Obama’s claim to a new kind of politics, even as he sharply contrasted his own faith-based vision with Bush’s “photo-op” version.
Demos' research on student debt reports an 11 percent rise in credit card debt among college students since 1989, leading to financial hardships that spill over onto the whole family.
Demos' Public Works Senior Program Director, Michael Lipsky and Demos Fellow Nicole Kazee argue that small business interests have been hijacked by powerful interest groups that do not full represent the views or interests of small-business owners. So then, who speaks for small business?
Fifteen years after NVRA passed Congress, many states are still ignoring their duty to low-income voters. Recent research and field and field investigations have indicated that states throughout the country are neglecting their responsibility to offer voter registration at public assistance offices.
Demos Legal Director Brenda Wright helps examine how high limits on individual campaign contributions disproportionately benefit the incumbent in an election.
Voters ranging in age from roughly the late teens to the early 30s, are part of the so-called millennial generation. This is a generation that is in danger of being left out of the American dream — the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents.