The nation is watching Wisconsin as a state Supreme Court race with major implications for democratic outcomes—at both state and national levels—becomes an all-out spending war on behalf of the liberal and conservative candidates. No one expects the record-breaking spending or heated partisan rhetoric to die down until the race in this crucial swing state is decided.
ERN Executive Director Kevin Johnson speaks to the Role of Social Innovation in Democracy Conference hosted by Stanford Social Innovation Review. This conference took place March 16–18, 2023.
Our efforts as part of the redistricting coalition in New Mexico contributed to legislative committee passage of HJR 1, a joint resolution for an independent redistricting commission.
This article, which cites ERN’s policy brief on a replacement system for judicial elections, was originally published in the Wisconsin Examiner.
In 2022, Congress was able to find common ground on an issue that destabilized U.S. politics. This unusually cooperative effort to update the Electoral Count Act of 1887 offers a path to a less divisive election ecosystem nationwide including redistricting reform.
The midterm elections have raised hopes that democracy-distortion fever is breaking at last. Prominent swing state candidates who ran on election lies lost because of it. Local officials trying to block results they didn't like were easily brought to heel. Warnings from pundits about an underground right-wing takeover of local election infrastructure proved wildly exaggerated. In short, a...
Statement from ERN Executive Director Kevin Johnson: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Moore v. Harper. This case is about the Independent State Legislature (ISL) theory and whether state legislatures are subject to checks and balances when they pass state laws governing federal elections. The Court's decision has the potential to put more power...
ERN in the Post-Election News Summary: David Brooks cites our work on election deniers running for secretary of state on PBS NewsHour. ERN opinion piece on the message from voters published in Talking Points Memo. Our call for secretaries of state running for office to recuse gets results in Washington. The Bangor Daily News editorializes in support of our position on...
Originally published in The Bangor Daily News. According to the nonprofit Election Reformers Network, 15 secretaries of state, both Democrats and Republicans, were on the ballot last Tuesday. Most of them were running for reelection to their current posts. The organization called on those officials to recuse themselves from any recount that might occur in...
Originally published in The Fulcrum. Four years ago, when the nation headed to the polls in the middle of Donald Trumps divisive term as president, half of eligible voters cast a ballot. Last week, preliminary data shows overall turnout was down a few percentage points. But some states saw an increase in voter participation. According...