"New Style of Election Reform Begins to Emerge"

Heather Gerken has written this Roll Call oped ($), which begins:

After years of electoral crises and near-misses, we have yet to see serious changes in the way we run elections. The good news is that a new style of election reform is starting to emerge, and it has taken root in the offices of two top-tier presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). This new reform paradigm shifts away from the traditional civil rights perspective toward a more pragmatic, data-driven approach. Unyielding in their idealism, the new election reformers attack problems with the hard head of a corporative executive. They look to a variety of institutions (the market, administrative agencies), not just the courts, for solutions. And they are as likely to appeal to traditionally conservative ideas-- accountability, competition-- as progressive values like participation or empowerment.

I'm much less optimistic than Heather is about the prospects for election reform. I'll be posting a draft essay of mine on the topic (which has an extensive discussion of the voter identification issue and cases) soon.

Posted by Rick Hasen at March 27, 2007 07:31 AM