On September 27, the American Political Science Association, the Electoral Integrity Project, and the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy brought together a unique group of scholars, organizers, activists, and analysts. Their task was to consider challenges facing American democracy, work through the implications of potential reform coalitions, and propose new democracy-reform activities.
The three sessions from the day-long course are now available to view. We welcome feedback, additional conversations, and further analysis — all of which will be taken seriously in our approach, which emphasizes listening to, rather than lecturing to, those impacted most by our democratic deficits. Our goals are to issue a task-force report, coordinate outreach, and plan capacity-building events over the next few months and into 2022. We hope you enjoy, and engage, in this conversation with many of the country’s leading experts and practitioners:
Panel 1: Confronting Challenges to Multi-Racial, Multi-Party Democracy
Holly Ann Garnett, Royal Military College of Canada, Electoral Integrity Project
Ruth Greenwood, Harvard Election Law Clinic
Sam Rosenfeld, Colgate University
OJ Semans, Co-Executive Director, Four Directions
Hannah Walker, Rutgers University
Panel 2: Building Successful Reform Coalitions
Andrea Benjamin, University of Oklahoma
George Cheung, Director, More Equitable Democracy
Kevin Johnson, Executive Director, Election Reformers Network
Maria Perez, Co-Director, Democracy Rising
Fernando Tormos-Aponte, University of Maryland, Union of Concerned Scientists
Alejandra Tres, Co-Founder, Battle for Democracy Fund
Panel 3: Bending the Arc and Improving System Performance
Lee Drutman, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
Pedro Hernandez, Legal and Policy Director, CA Common Cause
Jack Santucci, Drexel University
Heather Stoll, University of California at Santa Barbara