This post originally appeared on Medium. By Larry Garber and Thessalia Merivaki With only a few weeks to go before the Nov. 3 election, Americans are being bombarded by stories in the news and on social media about election irregularities. On a daily basis, voters hear reports that registration applications have been addressed to deceased persons…
Larry Garber has worked on overseas elections for 35 years and is on the board of Election Reformers Network, a nonprofit founded by such international specialists now working to improve American electoral systems. Thirty years ago this spring, I received a call from a colleague at the National Democratic Institute who was on assignment in Eastern…
We join this letter from profound love of our country, and from personal experience with what freedom and democracy in the United States symbolize for people around the world. In working to strengthen democracy and human rights overseas, we have seen nations overcome monumental crises in pursuit of freedom. So often these heroic acts have…
For Immediate Release Contact: Kevin Johnson 617 794 4383 kjohnson@electionreformers.org electionreformers.org Bipartisan Group of International Democracy Experts Calls on U.S. Leaders to Respond to Crisis by Reaffirming Commitment to Fair & Inclusive Elections Washington, DC; April 30, 2020. Fifty leading members of the international democracy promotion community released an open letter today urging political leaders…
By Kevin Johnson, Larry Garber, and Edward McMahon Since Ronald Reagan launched the National Endowment for Democracy in 1982, the U.S. government has regularly funded American organizations working to support democracy overseas. In scores of countries around the world, Americans have advised on the design of new election systems, nurtured emerging civil society, funded voter…
Written by Edward R. McMahon, ERN Board Vice Chair A wide variety of election management models, all of which are supposed to ensure legitimate elections, exist throughout the democratic world. It is normal that countries will choose different ways of conducting elections, as countries are in a sense, like snowflakes – no two ones are…
This post originally appeared in The Miami Herald. BY LINDSAY LLOYD As Florida holds its March 17 primary, the odds are good that most voters aren’t thinking about the health of global democracy. Most Americans don’t focus on international affairs unless there’s a crisis like war, terrorism or a pandemic. But a new report from Freedom House,…
— Thank you Rob, It’s been a pleasure to get to know you and this great organization. It’s also an honor to co-host this event. When we got started, one of our first steps was to seek wisdom from Rob and Cynthia, and Rob, it was good to learn that conversation was a coming…
Published in The Fulcrum, January 30, 2020 Our historical cousins in the United Kingdom vote much like we do — in single-member districts, under simple plurality rules — so their elections are worth paying attention to. This is particularly true now that “the duopoly,” the dominance of two parties characteristic of single-member-district systems, has become…
Five years ago, during a previous government shutdown, I used my downtime to research one of the most frequently cited quotes about democracy, which I then shared with a small group of friends and colleagues. Given the seeming “no way out” of the current predicament and the growing frustrations with the dysfunctional U.S. political system,…
