Election Integrity Initiative

 

The Foley Institute is joining more than three dozen nonpartisan political institutes nationwide in helping promote election integrity and civic understanding as the United States prepares for the 2024 election cycle.

“The deeply concerning rise in threats of violence and harassment directed at election administrators and volunteer poll workers requires institutes like ours to consider what we can do to enhance civics education and fight rampant disinformation about our electoral processes,” Cornell Clayton, director of the institute, said.

Much of the distrust in the United States’ elections process is rooted in the complexity of the system. Its highly decentralized nature means each state and municipality can have their own rules and ballots. But it’s that configuration that leads the U.S. to have a system that’s among the democratic world’s most accurate and resilient to threats of tampering. Our complex system can create confusion, but it is also one of its strengths.

This initiative seeks to be a resource for fighting misinformation, bolstering trust in our electoral processes, and providing civic education.  It aims to educate the public about the nuts and bolts of how local elections are run, who is responsible for what, and how ballot integrity is protected, so that election processes are better understood and trusted.  The initiative also seeks to continue the institute’s efforts to be at the forefront of conversations around civility and combating political polarization.

Links to useful resources

Civic Education

• Congress Week (University of Georgia)
• Discover Oral History (University of Georgia)
• Florida Joint Center for Citizenship (University of Central Florida)
• Civics360 (University of Central Florida)
• The Global Standard in Public Service Education (NASPAA)
• Democracy House (Supported By Blue Haven Initiative)
• The National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (Supported By Blue Haven Initiative)
• Federal Work-Study for Civic Engagement (Supported By Blue Haven Initiative)
• ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (Supported By Blue Haven Initiative)
• The Student Vote Research Network (Supported By Blue Haven Initiative)
• Annual Surveys (Buckley Institute, 2022)

 Civility

• The Civility Project (NYU Brademas Center, 2022)
• Depolarizing America: Finding Common Ground in Congress (Betsy Wright Hawkings, 2021)
• The Pluralism Challenge (George W. Bush Presidential Center)
• How Talking Can Build a Bridge to a Better America (George W. Bush Institute)
• Presidential Centers Affirm That “Democracy Holds Us Together” (George W. Bush Institute)
• Hyannis Port Summits (Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate)

Democracy Strengthening

• In Defense of Democracy: The Kettering Foundation’s New Strategic Plan (Kettering, 2023)
• Congress at a Crossroads: Retiring Members of Congress Tell Us What’s Right, What’s Wrong–And How to Fix It (FMC et al., 2019)
• United States: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report (Freedom House, 2023)
• From Crisis to Reform: A Call to Strengthen America’s Battered Democracy (Freedom House, 2021)
• Institutional Control of Redistricting and the Geography of Representation (Michael Crespin, 2017)
• Redistricting and Individual Contributions to Congressional Candidates (Michael Crespin, 2017)
• Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2022)
• No One Is Right in the Debate for and Against Philanthropic Pluralism (Shamil Idriss and Rachel Kleinfeld, 2023)
• Pro-Democracy Forces Need To Go On Offense (Rachel Kleinfeld and Suzette Brooks Masters, 2022)
• Survey of the Mountain West (Frank Church Institute, Boise State University, 2021)
• The United States Has a Democracy Problem: What Democratic Erosion Scholarship Tells Us about January 6 (Christina Kulich and Elizabeth Iams Wellman, 2021)
• The Senate Project (Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate)

Battling Disinformation

• Ballotpedia: Nonpartisan Information about Candidates and Elections
• Election Watch for the Digital Age (Freedom House, 2022)

Election Integrity

• Washington Secretary of State’s Office, Securing Your Vote
• National Association of Secretaries of State Securing Elections Initiative
• Presentation on Election Officials (Tammy Patrick)
• Principles for Safeguarding US Democracy (Freedom House, 2020)
• Digital Election Interference (Freedom House, 2019)
• Election Administration Commons (NASPAA Civic Education)
• Election Law (Ohio State University)
• Ohio Registered Election Official Certification (Ohio State University)
• Most Republican Candidates Endorse the ‘Big Lie’ — Even When Voters Don’t (Brendan Hartnett and Brian Schaffner, 2022)
• Unconditional Support for Trump’s Resistance Prior to Election Day (Brendan Hartnett and Alexandra Haver, 2022)
• Report of the Special Committee on Voter Confidence (State of New Hampshire and Former Member Richard Swett, 2022)

 

Political Violence

• • Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2023)
  • American Democracy is Dodging Bullets (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2023)
  • There Won’t Be a “Civil War”… (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2022)
  • The Rise in Political Violence in the United States and Damage to Our Democracy (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2022)
  • The Rise of Political Violence in the United States (Rachel Kleinfeld, 2021)
  • U.S. Department of Justice Election Threats Task Force