Election Reform Topic of Conference at National Press Club

May 23, 2003

How much have state governments changed their election laws since the Florida presidential election debacle in 2000? Why have some states made major changes, others incremental reforms and a few nothing at all?

Those topics and more will be examined May 29 at a conference on "Election Reform: Politics and Policy," at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. The conference is sponsored by electionline.org, the nation's only non-partisan, non-advocacy clearinghouse for information and analysis on election reform. It is a project of the University of Richmond under a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"Eleven case studies representing the three general patterns of state-level election reform activity will be discussed," said Dan Palazzolo, associate professor of political science at Richmond and chair of a conference session.

Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, will give the keynote address, followed by presentations on the state efforts by academic representatives.

"We expect to synthesize the results and attempt to draw general conclusions about how and why different states responded as they did to the problems exposed by the 2000 election," said Palazzolo.

In addition to examining the states' efforts, the conference will focus on the 2002 federal Help America Vote Act, which legislated guidelines and expectations about how states should administer elections.

For more information on the conference, contact Dan Palazzolo at (804) 289- 8973.