Conference announcement: "Making Every Vote Count: A Colloquium on Election Reform Legislation"
On behalf of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and the Fels Institute for Government at the University of Pennsylvania, we would like to invite you to attend a conference on election reform that we are hosting this spring. The conference, titled "Making Every Vote Count: A Colloquium on Election Reform Legislation" will take place at Princeton on April 6th and 7th, and will bring leading figures in the scholarly, policy, and advocacy communities together to consider the myriad urgent yet delicate questions currently confronting the nation's electoral systems. For attorneys, the conference will also count as CLE credit. There is no charge to attend.
"Making Every Vote Count," will focus on three particularly important federal laws -- the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, or McCain-Feingold), the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) – with a special emphasis on the implications of these acts for practice and policy in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region. Among the questions we hope to address are:
• “How has the McCain-Feingold Act both limited and driven policymaking at the state level;”
• “In what ways does HAVA challenge common definitions of voting equity, and what are the implications of those challenges for the future of policymaking;"
• "How might the Voting Rights Act best reflect minority voters’ concerns, in the renewal process and beyond;"
• “What are some important goals in election reform that both HAVA and the VRA fail to address?”
Several pieces of specially commissioned research will provide the foundation for the event. Authors who will be presenting their work include Ned Foley of Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law, Richard Pildes of New York University School of Law, Richard Briffault of Columbia Law School, and Guy Charles of the University of Minnesota Law School. Along with panels based on these papers, there will be roundtable discussions with critical regional election officials, as well as keynote addresses by leading figures in the election reform movement, including former EAC Chair DeForest Soaries.
For more information, please contact Andy Rachlin at arachlin@princeton.edu or (609)258-9531. To register, please go to http://region.princeton.edu/conference_20.html or contact Georgette Harrison at gharriso@princeton.edu or (609)258-9065. Please register online if at all possible, as it makes it easier for us to provide updates on the conference as the date nears. Note that the conference will begin at 9:15 a.m. each day and continue until mid-afternoon.
We hope you will be able to join us for what is sure to be a timely and provocative event.