Conference & Working Papers

Working Papers

Below are the working papers produced by the CDEM staff and senior fellows and faculty advisory committee members. CDEM invites members of the community to prepare comments to the papers, which can be emailed to cdem@american.edu for publication.

CDEM Working Paper 6: Dysfunctional Decentralization: Electoral System Performance in Theory and Practice (.pdf)
George Guess, 4/20/2009

CDEM Working Paper 5: Voter IDs Are Not the Problem: A Survey of Three States (.pdf)
Robert A. Pastor, Robert Santos, Alison Prevost, and Vassia Gueorguieva

CDEM Working Paper 4: Explaining the Credibility Gap in Mexico’s 2006 Presidential Election, Despite Strong (Albeit Perfectable) Electoral Institutions (.pdf)
Todd A. Eisenstadt and Alejandro Poiré, 11/8/2006

Comments to Paper 4: A Full Recount to Achieve Closure (.pdf)
Robert A. Pastor, 12/11/2006

CDEM Working Paper 3: Prisoner Erdogan's Dilemma and the Origins of Moderate Islam in Turkey (.pdf)
Seda Demiralp and Todd Eisenstadt, 8/31/2006.

CDEM Working Paper 2: Elections by Customary Law in Oaxaca, Mexico: Expression of Cultural Rights or Violation of Democratic Electoral Norms? (.pdf)
Todd Eisenstadt, 7/9/2006.

CDEM Working Paper 1: A Plan to Modernize Voter Registration (.pdf)
Robert A. Pastor, Daniel Calingaert, John Henderson, and Paula Hawthorn, 5/30/2006

Ballot Integrity and Voting By Mail: The Oregon Experience (.pdf)
A memorandum from Dr. Paul Gronke, Director, Early Voting Information Center to Dr. Robert A. Pastor, Executive Director, Commission on Federal Election Reform. 6/15/2005.

Conference Papers

In March 2006, CDEM organized a conference to assess the reform and implementation efforts being carried out across the states to comply with the requirements of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Below is a list of papers presented:

What's Changed, What Hasn't and Why: Election Reform in 2006 (.pdf)
Doug Chapin, Director, Electionline.org

Voter Registration Systems (.pdf)
Eric Fischer, Senior Specialist, Congressional Research Service

Toward a New Procedural Paradigm (.pdf)
Curtis Gans, Director, Center for the Study of the American Electorate, American University

Are HAVA's Provisional Ballots Working? (.pdf)
Wendy Weiser, Deputy Director, Democracy Program, Brennan Center, New York University School of Law

Assessing the Rate of Return on a Federal Investment in Voter Education and Pollworker Training (.pdf)
Tracy Warren, Executive Director, Pollworker Institute

Voting Technology: The Way Forward (.pdf)
Dan Tokaji, Assistant Professor, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University

Summary of Public Comment on the 2005 Voluntary Voting System Guidelines: A Center for Correct, Useable, Reliable and Transparent Elections (ACCURATE) (.pdf)
Avi Rubin, Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University

Comments: "Are U.S. Elections Getting Better or Worse? Is HAVA Working?" (.pdf)
Paul DeGregorio, Chairman, U.S. Election Assistance Commission

The EAC is Beginning to Fill the Institutional Void. But Changes in HAVA May Be Needed. (.pdf)
Roy Saltman, author of The History and Politics of Voting Technology

In November 14, 2003, CDEM-sponsored a conference entitled, "Democracy and Elections In North America: What Can We Learn From Our Neighbors?". Papers presented at the CDEM-sponsored conference were published in the Election Law Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, July 2004.

Press release and table of contents (.pdf) | Website