Publications
Democracy
A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting
Explains and presents the redistricting process for state and federal government, and for many local governments, in digestible parts. Consider it an owners’ manual, for those who should own the process: we, the people.
Authored by: Justin Levitt with Bethany Foster
– 07/01/08
Writing Reform: A Guide to Drafting State & Local Campaign Finance Laws (2008 Revised Edition)
A guide to writing state and local campaign finance laws.
Authored by: Deborah Goldberg
– 06/27/08
A Return to Common Sense
Imagine an America in which a vast number of people routinely vote; where voting is easy, accessible to all, and fair; in which campaigns know they cannot win by dividing slivers of the electorate, but by energizing large numbers behind their plans and ideas.
Authored by: Michael Waldman
– 04/01/08
Fair Courts: Setting Recusal Standards
The Brennan Center’s recusal report addresses increasing threats to the impartiality of America’s state courts, and provides ten proposals to achieving meaningful reform of state recusal systems.
Authored by: James Sample, David Pozen and Michael Young
– 04/01/08
Restoring the Right to Vote
Despite a history of expanding the franchise, there remains one significant blanket barrier to the franchise. 5.3 million American citizens are not allowed to vote because of a felony conviction. As many as 4 million of these people live in our communities, but are still denied the right to vote because of a prior conviction.
Authored by: Erika Wood
– 02/26/08
The Truth About Voter Fraud
Voter fraud makes a popular scapegoat. In the aftermath of a close election, losing candidates are often quick to blame voter fraud for the results. Legislators cite voter fraud as justification for various new restrictions on the exercise of the franchise. And pundits trot out the same few anecdotes time and again as proof that a wave of fraud is imminent. Allegations of widespread voter fraud, however, often prove greatly exaggerated.
Authored by: Justin Levitt
– 11/09/07
Post-Election Audits: Restoring Trust in Elections
With the intention of assisting legislators, election officials and the public to make sense of recent literature on post-election audits and convert it into realistic audit practices, the Brennan Center and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at Boalt Hall School of Law (University of California Berkeley) convened a blue ribbon panel. Included are several practical recommendations for improving post-election audits, regardless of the audit method that a jurisdiction ultimately decides to adopt.
Authored by: Lawrence Norden, Aaron Burstein, Joseph Lorenzo Hall and Margaret Chen
– 08/01/07
Post-Election Audits: Restoring Trust in Elections (Executive Summary)
Executive summary of practical recommendations put forth by the Brennan Center and Samuelson Clinic for improving post-election audits, regardless of the audit method that a jurisdiction ultimately decides to adopt.
Authored by: Lawrence Norden, Aaron Burstein, Joseph Lorenzo Hall and Margaret Chen
– 08/01/07
The New Politics of Judicial Elections 2006
This fourth edition of “The New Politics of Judicial Elections” shows how 2006 was the most threatening year yet to the fairness of America’s state courts. Special interest pressure is metastasizing into a permanent national campaign against impartial justice.
Authored by: James Sample, Lauren Jones and Rachel Weiss
– 05/17/07
Campaign Finance in Minnesota
This study finds that a major loophole in Minnesota’s campaign finance system permits special interests to funnel unlimited amounts of money to political parties, legislative caucuses, and PACs- creating massive opportunities for special interest groups to distort Minnesota’s political process.
Authored by: Suzanne Novak & Paige Ammons
– 04/25/07