Democracy at Risk: The Road Forward After Two Dubious Elections

Press Release   Alison Leff  The American Prospect Magazine
  

WASHINGTON January 6 Even after the supposed reforms enacted to remedy the 2000 electoral fiasco, many voters expressed doubts that their votes would be counted in 2004. Though not the total debacle widely expected, in many ways the 2004 election confirmed voters? fears. A special report in the January issue of the The American Prospect highlights the problems faced by our democracy during the 2004 election. The report was published with the support and contributions of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, JEHT Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action.

Contributing authors include scholars, journalists, and public-policy advocates who share an interest and expertise in rebuilding American democracy:

America Observed By Robert Pastor, American University, Why foreign election observers would rate the United States near the bottom.

2004: A Report Card By Tova Andrea Wang, The Century Foundation, The appearance of a disaster averted obscures an election system that?s still badly broken.

The Democracy We Deserve By Miles S. Rapoport, Demos, There?s reason to be optimistic about the prospects for reform. Here?s why.

Whither the Ward Heelers? By Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect The Democratic ?527s? all but supplanted the party, but does ACT have a second act?

Color It Wrong By Steven Carb?, Demos, The tactics are more subtle than in the old days, but suppression of votes in minority neighborhoods is very much alive and well.

Courting Trouble By Burt Neuborne, New York University School of Law
Liberal overdependence on the courts, combined with an obsessive preoccupation with church-state symbolism, has reached its limit.
Thinking Even Bigger By Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect Not satisfied with tinkering with the little details of electoral reform? Take a look at some of these bold reforms.

Vanishing Bipartisanship By Tara McKelvey, The American Prospect, A conversation with Warren Rudman.

Don?t Count on It By Mark Leon Goldberg, The American Prospect, Why we need paper trails to back up compromised and fallible voting machines and why we?re not getting them.

A Few Good States By Sam Rosenfeld, The American Prospect Maine, Minnesota, and now Georgia are showing that well-run elections are more than possible.

Full-text articles from this special report can be found online at: http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=Democracy+at+Risk

For copies of this month?s special report, or to request an interview with any of the authors, please use the contact information listed above.

The newly-redesigned Moving Ideas, a project of The American Prospect and a leading source for progressive policy on the Net, covered voter suppression in the 2004 election. Here?s the link: http://www.movingideas.org/content/en/in_the_fight/voter_suppression_rap_sheet.htm

The American Prospect is America?s leading liberal magazine of politics and public affairs. A blend of essay, criticism, investigation, commentary, and in-depth analysis, the magazine stands for a politically muscular liberalism. Founded in 1990 by Robert Reich, Robert Kuttner, and Paul Starr, the magazine is published from Washington, D.C., every month.

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