The Democracy Database

Election

(Dis)Trust in Elections: Identifying Who Distrusts the Election Process and Why

Campaign Legal Center

Despite many election observers declaring the 2020 election the most secure in history, there is still widespread distrust in the integrity of American elections.

Election

24 for ’24: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics, and Tech for Fair and Legitimate 2024 U.S. Elections

Safeguarding Democracy Project, UCLA Law September 2023

This bipartisan report provides 24 recommendations to enhance trust, transparency, and security for the 2024 elections. The recommendations are organized across four subject areas: law, media, politics, and tech.

Election

Building Trust: Election Administration and the Role of Higher Education

Columbia University / Columbia World Projects, February 2022

This report describes higher education institutions' role in supporting elections. Based on two convenings with election officials, practitioners, and scholars, the report offers a look at how universities support elections and makes a series of reco

Election

Communicating with Voters to Build Trust in the U.S. Election System

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Election Data and Science Lab, October 31, 2023

This report explores why voters distrust American elections and surveys potential mechanisms to increase voter trust.

Election

Democracy Depends On All of Us | Brennan Center for Justice

Brennan Center of Justice, April 25, 2023

This report is an overview of a few of the Brennan Center’s major efforts from 2022 and provides some insight into what they hope to focus on and accomplish in the year ahead.

Election

Deterring Threats to Election Workers

The Bipartisan Policy Center, July 2022

This report makes recommendations for the Department of Justice to better deter threats to and protect election workers.

Election

Guns and Voting: How to Protect Elections After Bruen

Brennan Center for Justice and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Due to easy access to firearms, gun regulation is an especially salient component of combating political intimidation and violence in America.

Election

How Federalism Plus Polarization Create Distrust in American Elections (and Experimental Evidence for a Potential Solution)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Election Data and Science Lab/UC San Diego Yankelovich Center

This paper looks at the role of federalism in increasing polarization and how that relates to perceptions of trust in elections.

Election

Improving the Voting Experience After 2020

Bipartisan Policy Center

Voting reform narratives often offer a false dichotomy between a complete expansion of all voting options or draconian voting rights restrictions.

Election

New Models for Keeping Partisans out of Election Administration

Kevin Johnson, The Carter Center & Election Reformers Network

This report recognizes that state election administrators, who are tasked with the impartial supervision of elections, are often selected through a partisan process.

Election

New Models for Keeping Partisans out of Election Administration

Kevin Johnson, The Carter Center & Election Reformers Network

This report recognizes that state election administrators, who are tasked with the impartial supervision of elections, are often selected through a partisan process.

Election

Securing 2024: Defending US Elections Through Investment and Reform

Alliance for Securing Democracy

This report recognizes that state election administrators, who are tasked with the impartial supervision of elections, are often selected through a partisan process.

Election

The 2024 Election: Rebuilding Trust

Hyperpolarization, low voter confidence, and the threat of generative artificial intelligence (AI) disinformation all pose unique threats to the 2024 Election.

Election

The Financial and Economic Dangers of Democratic Backsliding

Layna Mosley, The Brookings Institution & States United Democracy Center

This article argues that continued assaults on American political institutions will have a profound negative economic impact both at home and abroad.

Election

The Legal Ethics of Lying About American Democracy

Suffolk University Law School

This is an academic paper that explores the role that lawyers played in the disinformation campaign that led to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and provides recommendations for how the profession should handle this type of conduct.

Election

Election Administration as a Licensed Profession

Ganesh Sitaraman & Kevin M. Stack, Wisconsin Law Review

This scholarly article advocates for the creation of state licensing regimes to govern the profession of election administration.