Announcement via email:
The Universal Voting Working Group is releasing its report on July 20th. “Lift Every Voice: The Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Voting” is the result of almost two years of work by a diverse group of 25 scholars, advocates, and election specialists. The effort is a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School. It has been co-chaired by Miles Rapoport and E.J. Dionne.
The Working Group examined the idea that the United States should consider participation in elections as a requirement of citizenship, as we currently do with the requirement of jury service, and as 26 countries around the globe currently do with regard to voting— Australia since 1924. It has not received any real discussion in the United States; the group hopes this will be a starting point.
The Brookings-Ash Center launch event will be on Monday, July 20th at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The discussion will feature the release of the report and comments on it by members of the Working Group. Here is the link to register for the event. The report itself will be available on the Brookings and Ash Center websites once it is released.