If New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has his way Americans would be automatically registered to vote, they would be voting on the weekend, and it would be easier to gain access to the ballot if you wanted to run for office in New York City.

Today Mayor Bloomberg announced his “Easy to Vote & Easy to Run” election reform plan which includes an endorsement of Rep. Steve Israel and Sen. Herb Kohl’s Weekend Voting Act, a piece of legislation that we’ve talked a lot about here. The data-friendly mayor also wants to create a Democracy Index in New York City to help target, as he has done with the 3-1-1 system in New York City, problem voting areas throughout New York’s five boroughs.

Why Tuesday? board member Norman J. Ornstein is quoted in Mayor Bloomberg’s press release announcing his plan, saying “this set of reforms is a huge step forward to making the voting system work and revitalizing democracy in New York. It should serve as a model for elections across the country.” The Mayor’s complete press release is below. (more…)

Posted in Demcoracy Index, Election 2008, Election Reform, Mayor Bloomberg, New York, Why do we vote on Tuesday? | 3 Comments »

Here in Los Angeles, you know if the restaurant you’re about to eat in is clean, kind of clean, or just plain nasty by the letter grades that are clearly posted in every restaurant’s front window by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. But if you’re a voter in the United States, you (or your policymakers) have no idea where your state ranks on the list of best-to-worst elections practices, what voter turnout is, and how easy or reliable or secure the voting process is in your own state. But that may soon change.

Yesterday in Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, the campaign lawyers for President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain co-authored an op-ed endorsing the idea of ranking state election systems. Robert F. Bauer and Trevor Potter decided to back Yale professor Heather Gerken’s plan for a “democracy index” because they see it as a critical step in the right direction to fixing America’s (still) broken voting system. (more…)

Posted in Demcoracy Index, Election Reform | Comments Off