Introduction

Welcome to Data for Democracy, a conference sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ and the JEHT Foundation’s Make Voting Work project, to be held May 12-13 in Washington D.C.

Data for Democracy is a part of Make Voting Work's initiative to address the need for empirical data to improve election administration in the United States. The conference convenes an array of stakeholders who use election data to clarify thinking on those elements critical to an assessment of the performance of our electoral system. Since the comment period for the proposed 2008 EAC Election Administration and Election Day Survey closes on May 19, we hope also to spur high quality comments on this project.

This two-day meeting will bring together experts in election administration and data collection and analysis to discuss challenges and opportunities for improving the accuracy and relevancy of election data.

Schedule

The meeting will begin with an informal lunch on Monday, May 12th and sessions will begin at 1:00pm. The formal meeting will conclude by 4:30pm on Tuesday, May 13th.

Please note, the following agenda have been slightly changed (05/07) | Download as a PDF

Day 1: Monday 12th

Day 2: Tuesday 13th

Materials (Updated)

The background material below––comprised of memos, reports and academic writing––was sent out to all confirmed attendees; we provide it here for your convenience | Download original material as a PDF (4.2mb)

A binder of materials and working papers to be discussed at the conference is now available to download and preview [PDF, 3.6mb].

  • Election Reform and Local Election Officials: Survey (Eric Fischer and Kevin Coleman, 2008)

    Fischer and Coleman present the results of a national survey of the attitudes of local election officials toward voting reforms.

  • Testimony of Overseas Vote Foundation (Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, 2008)

    This testimony given to the Committee on House Administration describes OVF's efforts to reach out to and support overseas voters, and discusses problems faced in UOCAVA compliance.

  • Mitigating Voter Waiting Times (Theodore Allen and Mikhail Bernshteyn, 2006)

    In this article from the journal Chance, Allen and Bernshteyn apply statistical methods and queuing theory to the problem of long precinct-place voting lines.

  • Improving the Election Day Survey (Thad Hall and R. Michael Alvarez, 2006)

    Hall and Alvarez discuss some of the general problems that accompany the collection of detailed election administration data, focusing specifically on the EAC's 2004-2005 EDS.

  • Data-Driven Reform (Heather Gerken, forthcoming)

    In the second chapter of her upcoming book on the 'Democracy Index', Gerken discusses the barrier created by the lack of data and empirical evidence in the debate about election reform. Gerken argues that this problem can and should be addressed, and provides a series of possible solutions, incorporating the 'Democracy Index'. The Index, she contends, would provide the hard statistics essential to informing effective debate about election reform.

  • Challenges to Creating a Scientifically Valid 'Democracy Index' (Paul Gronke, September 2007)

    In this memo, Gronke addresses potential problems that may arise with collection of data regarding election administration and implementation of the Democracy Index. In order for the Index to be successful, he argues, there must be sufficient attention paid to issues of reliability and validity; measurement and pilot testing.

  • Neglecting the NVRA (Douglas Hess and Scott Novakowski, February 2008)

    Hess and Novakowski discuss the ways in which many states have failed to comply with a number of provisions of the NVRA and the failure of the Department of Justice to enforce this law.

  • Voter Registration: Database Accuracy (Michael McDonald, September 2007)

    McDonald addresses the importance of voter registration data accuracy and the problems that arise in the collection and maintenance of such data. Additionally, with reference to the Democracy Index, McDonald suggests a number of ways to measure the accuracy of voter registration lists.

  • Identifying the Quality of Exisiting Data (Peter Miller and Heather Gerken, November 2007)

    Miller and Gerken's memos address a number of problems with data collected and included in three reports submitted to Congress during the summer of 2007 regarding the NVRA, UOCAVA and the EDS. The result of this analysis a rank ordering of states based on the completeness of responses to the survey questions found in the laws.

  • State Voter Registration Databases (NAS, 2008)

    This report offers both short and long-term solutions to the effective deployment of these databases.

  • Useful online resources

Attend



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Unfortunately, due to space limitations, the conference is open to invited participants only. However, we will have a great deal of discussion and information available on these pages soon after the conference ends, so keep an eye on this website!

The conference will be held at the Washington offices of The Pew Charitable Trusts:

1025 F Street NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20004-1409

If you have questions, please contact Paul Gronke at the Early Voting Information Center or Alysoun McLaughlin at Pew's Make Voting Work project. Attendees can download a travel expenses form.