Download or read book Managing Elections during the COVID 19 Pandemic written by International IDEA and published by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). This book was released on 2020-07-19 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the midst of the extraordinary challenges and uncertainty stemming from COVID-19, decision-makers are under increasing pressure to determine how to manage the pandemic’s immediate impact on, and consequences for, the timing and sequencing of elections. These decisions cannot be taken lightly, as they could jeopardize public health and shape the state of democracy in their countries, states or territories for years to come. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly challenged elections, making new and pressing demands on how they are managed. The main public health threat associated with elections arises from the requirement for voters to cast their ballots in person at a polling station, most often on a single day. Having to converge to polling stations and handle voting materials that have been touched by many others, while being confined in crowded spaces where maintaining a safe distance from others may be difficult has suddenly become a new challenge. By devising timely, appropriate and sustainable solutions, drawn from own or others’ experience, electoral democracy frameworks can be gradually strengthened to withstand undue pressure.

Download or read book Managing Elections under the COVID 19 Pandemic The Republic of Korea s Crucial Test written by Antonio Spinelli and published by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). This book was released on 2020-04-18 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on countries and states as to whether to hold or postpone scheduled elections, amid controversies in either case. Striking a balance between these two choices is not an easy call. Should the fulfilment of the social contract between a government and its citizens come at the expense of endangering their health and lives? Or should concerns of exacerbating the outbreak as a result of the mass gatherings inherent to the societal ritual of voting, prevail over other considerations? This Technical Paper looks at the experience in the Republic of Korea which is one of the first countries to hold national elections under the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download or read book Pandemic at the Polls written by Dari Sylvester Tran and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2020, COVID-19 became a global pandemic devastating physical and mental health, social wellbeing, and the economic status of millions globally. Unforgettable images of death and the deep wounds inflicted on the livelihoods of employees and business owners were broadcast daily in the media; in contrast, less visible was the political fallout that threatened the rights of countless voters seeking to exercise their democratic rights under exceptional conditions. In the United States, the scourge of the pandemic came during a highly contentious presidential election year, where states were challenged to administer multiple elections in the context of changing public health mandates, critical supply and personnel shortages, and decreased election funding. More than three years into the pandemic, as the worst devastation from the virus seems to be nearing an end, what lessons can be drawn from this political moment to ensure that future elections continue to be resilient in the face of threatening circumstances? What reforms adopted in COVID-19's midst will remain - for better or worse? Featuring cutting-edge research from top and emerging scholars of election administration, both inside and outside of academia, Pandemic at the Polls is a must-read for elections scholars, administrators, and students of democratic elections.

Download or read book Elections and COVID 19 written by International IDEA and published by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). This book was released on 2020-03-26 with total page 5 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global spread of COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus disease) has profoundly impacted on the delivery of public services and routine events that are integral to inclusive societies. Electoral processes are one such event. The opportunity for a society to confirm officials in elected office or remove them, within a constitutionally defined timeframe, is a pillar of democratic values and standards. The process of doing this is a communal one, and communal events intrinsically bring people together—a process that is contrary to the informed advice for limiting the transmission of a virus, such as the one that causes COVID-19. Decisions must be made to ensure democratic institutions function as they ordinarily would do, during extraordinary times, such as the outbreak of a global health pandemic. This Technical Paper offers an initial overview of key points for electoral administrators, governments and civil society organizations on administering elections amid the continued spread of COVID-19.

Download or read book Elections in Times of a Pandemic Dilemmas and Challenges written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-03-04 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that unexpected and unpredictable situations can hinder the conduct of general elections around the world. The book is a comprehensive analysis of the organization of elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the theoretical perspective, it familiarizes the public with specific electoral solutions adopted during the pandemic in selected European countries (Italy, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia, Russia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Poland). The editors believe that this book will bring closer the specific solutions adopted in the considered countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide readers with a multi-faceted understanding of elections in emergency situations. Contributors are: Roman Bäcker, Ryszard Balicki, Piotr Chrobak, Rafał Dudała, Kamil Glinka, Maciej Górny, Maciej Hartliński, Marcin Jastrzębski, Izabela Kapsa, Agnieszka Kasińska-Metryka, Joanna Kielin-Maziarz, Jakub Klepański, Oliwia Kowalik, Krzysztof Koźbiał, Aleksandra Kuczyńska-Zonik, Natalia Kusa, Elżbieta Lesiewicz, Natasza Lubik-Reczek, Agnieszka Łukasik-Turecka, Paweł Malendowicz, Martinas Maluzinas, Radosław Marzęcki, Magdalena Musiał-Karg, Adam Pluszczyk, Agata Pyrzyńska, Marcin Rachwał, Joanna Rak, Kamila Sierzputowska, Krzysztof Skotnicki, Piotr Walewicz, Jacek Wojnicki, and Waldemar Wojtasik.

Download or read book Our Broken Elections written by John Fund and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behind the deeply contentious 2020 election stands a real story of a broken election process. Election fraud that alters election outcomes and dilutes legitimate votes occurs all too often, as is the bungling of election bureaucrats. Our election process is full of vulnerabilities that can be — and are — taken advantage of, raising questions about, and damaging public confidence in, the legitimacy of the outcome of elections. This book explores the reality of the fraud and bureaucratic errors and mistakes that should concern all Americans and offers recommendations and solutions to fix those problems.

Download or read book What Democracy Looks Like written by Alison Parker and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[The report] examines changes that election officials made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic prior to the 2020 primaries in Arizona, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin and their impact on the right to vote."--Publisher website.

Download or read book Election Meltdown written by Richard L. Hasen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the nation’s leading expert, an indispensable analysis of key threats to the integrity of the 2020 American presidential election As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old-fashioned and new-fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans. Taking into account how each of these threats has manifested in recent years—most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections—Hasen offers concrete steps that need to be taken to restore trust in American elections before the democratic process is completely undermined.

Download or read book Elections during emergencies and crises written by Toby S. James and published by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). This book was released on 2023-05-08 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elections often have to be held in emergency situations. The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the most serious emergency situations that the world has seen. The rapid spread of the virus presented a huge humanitarian threat—but also an unparalleled challenge to electoral stakeholders globally seeking to protect electoral integrity during times of uncertainty. This volume identifies how the pandemic affected electoral integrity, what measures were put in place to protect elections and what worked in defending them. It brings together a comprehensive set of 26 country case studies to explore how elections were affected on the ground, what measures were put in place and what worked. These case studies are of elections which took place in the eye of the storm when practitioners and policymakers were operating under uncertainty and without the benefit of hindsight. To learn lessons in a more systematic way, this volume also provides a thematic analysis of electoral integrity during the pandemic using crossnational studies. This provides the big picture for policymakers, practitioners and academics looking back at the crisis. The volume therefore seeks to contribute towards the future development of policy and practice. However, it does so by using academic research methods and concepts which enable greater confidence in the policy lessons, as well as contributing directly to the scholarship on democracy, democratization and elections. The volume includes 11 areas of recommendation based on the evidence collected in this volume to protect electoral integrity in any future emergency situation.

Download or read book An Assessment of State Voting Processes written by Jennifer Kavanagh and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented a severe threat to state election plans in 2020 for primaries and for the general election. To conduct an election during the COVID-19 pandemic, states need registration and voting options that minimize direct personal contact and that reduce crowds and common access to high-touch surfaces. Another way to think about preparedness for conducting elections during a pandemic is to consider the flexibility that state election processes afford in terms of where, when, and how voters can get registered and cast votes. Particularly valuable to flexibility in the pandemic context are options that allow for the registration and voting processes to happen remotely or in ways that reduce person-to-person contact. In this report, the authors summarize state election laws on early voting, remote voting, and voter registration and discuss the potential implications of these laws for the execution of the November 2020 general election under conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is part of RAND's Countering Truth Decay initiative, which is focused on restoring the role of facts, data, and analysis in U.S. political and civil discourse and the policymaking process.

Download or read book 2020 Elections written by Sabine Schmidt and published by Nova Snova. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Election Day is the day legally established to select public officials in the United States. General elections for federal offices--President, Vice President, and U.S. Congress Congress--are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. This book deals with the many issues surrounding the upcoming 2020 elections, including: security in the aftermath of Russian interference during the 2016 elections, the problems caused by the COVID pandemic and the Electoral College.

Download or read book Democracy for Realists written by Christopher H. Achen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why our belief in government by the people is unrealistic—and what we can do about it Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters—even those who are well informed and politically engaged—mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government.

Download or read book Civic Engagement in American Democracy written by Theda Skocpol and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-05-13 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American democracy is in many ways more vital than ever before. Advocacy groups proliferate and formerly marginalized groups enjoy new opportunities. But worrisome trends exist. Millions of Americans are drawing back from involvements with community affairs and politics. Voters stay home; public officials grapple with distrust or indifference; and people are less likely to cooperate on behalf of shared goals. Observers across the spectrum of opinion agree that it is vital to determine what is happening and why—so that Americans can take well-informed, effective steps to revitalize our national community. The book opens with an eagle-eye look at the roots of America's special patterns of civic engagement, examining the ways social groups and government and electoral politics have influenced each other. Other chapters examine the impact of advocacy groups and socioeconomic inequalities on democratic processes and probe the influence of long-term social and cultural changes on voluntary associations and civic participation. The book concludes by asking why social liberation has been accompanied by new inequalities and the erosion of many important forms of citizen leverage and participation. Coming together from several disciplines, contributors include Jeffrey M. Berry, Henry E. Brady, John Brehm, Steven Brint, Elisabeth S. Clemens, Peter Dobkin Hall, Wendy M. Rahn, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba, and Robert Wuthnow. Copublished with the Russell Sage Foundation

Download or read book California s Recall Election of Gavin Newsom written by Larry N. Gerston and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California went through a political earthquake of sorts when the state recalled Governor Gray Davis in 2003. In 2021, the state faced another political turning point with the threatened recall of Governor Gavin Newsom. Less than two years after Newsom’s overwhelming election victory, more than two million Californians signed on to the recall effort, hoping to expel him from office in a special election. How could such a monumental turnabout be possible? Normally, the political headwinds would be much too strong for a movement to oust a governor who had decisively vanquished his opponent. But--with the COVID-19 pandemic dominating every aspect of society, including politics--these weren’t normal times. Organizing a recall election is a demanding enterprise: it takes abundant political energy, tremendous amounts of anger with the status quo, and mounds of money. Yet, for the second time in less than two decades, such wheels were set in motion. What is it that makes California so dynamic yet so fragile? This book explains that paradox and, in the process, enlightens readers about the recall process, the challenges of federalism, and the pitfalls of direct democracy. It examines the underlying conditions that expose a state with poorly linked institutions, a bitterly divided society, and a governor who had to act under nearly impossible conditions, demonstrating his strengths and vulnerabilities along the way. It’s a story that could happen only in California, a state with a history of "only" stories. Designed to be useful in a variety of college courses, this book is the first to unveil the Newsom backstory and will appeal to pundits and politicos as well as interested general readers.

Download or read book Pandemic Politics written by Shana Kushner Gadarian and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the politicization of the pandemic endangers our lives—and our democracy COVID-19 has killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history, but the scale and grim human toll of the pandemic were not inevitable. Pandemic Politics examines how Donald Trump politicized COVID-19, shedding new light on how his administration tied the pandemic to the president’s political fate in an election year and chose partisanship over public health, with disastrous consequences for all of us. Health is not an inherently polarizing issue, but the Trump administration’s partisan response to COVID-19 led ordinary citizens to prioritize what was good for their “team” rather than what was good for their country. Democrats, in turn, viewed the crisis as evidence of Trump’s indifference to public well-being. At a time when solidarity and bipartisan unity were sorely needed, Americans came to see the pandemic in partisan terms, adopting behaviors and attitudes that continue to divide us today. This book draws on a wealth of new data on public opinion to show how pandemic politics has touched all aspects of our lives—from the economy to race and immigration—and puts America’s COVID-19 response in global perspective. An in-depth account of a uniquely American tragedy, Pandemic Politics reveals how the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic has profound and troubling implications for public health and the future of democracy itself.

Download or read book COVID 19 and Other Election Emergencies written by R. Sam Garrett and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Learning from Loss written by Seth Masket and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Democrats' decision to nominate Joe Biden for 2020 was hardly a fluke but rather a strategic choice by a party that had elevated electability above all other concerns. In Learning from Loss, one of the nation's leading political analysts offers unique insight into the Democratic Party at a moment of uncertainty. Between 2017 and 2020, Seth Masket spoke with Democratic Party activists and followed the behavior of party leaders and donors to learn how the party was interpreting the 2016 election and thinking about a nominee for 2020. Masket traces the persistence of party factions and shows how interpretations of 2016 shaped strategic choices for 2020. Although diverse narratives emerged to explain defeat in 2016 - ranging from a focus on 'identity politics' to concerns about Clinton as a flawed candidate - these narratives collectively cleared the path for Biden.