Home  About  Chapters  Policy  Publications  Join  Jobs  Donate  Blog  The University of Michigan's first dream.DETROIT installment, Art and Urban Development in Detroit. dream.DETROIT is a year-long community development project. News from the National Office Post-Election Center TI Launched Roosevelt LiveBlogs the Presidential Debate On Campus Midwest Regional Fall Policy Workshop Blum speaks at Vermont Campus Compact conference Coverage of the Johns Hopkins Chapter Launch > More "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." — Franklin Roosevelt    Voter Registration > Roosevelt Home > Roosevelt Challenges > Voter Registration By Nate Loewentheil Categories: Voting rights The Challenge: The Roosevelt Institution challenges its members to work to ensure a fair voting system for all Americans. Important Progressive: accomplishing this challenge will contribute directly and specifically to the progressive values embodied by Roosevelt's Statement of Principles Meaningful: our contribution to this challenge will produce a real change in the lives of our fellow human beings. One can imagine a world in which the challenge is solved, and such a world is better than the one we live in today. Relevant: the challenge is relevant to the social contract project that Roosevelt has embarked upon Voting is absolutely fundamental to democracy. It is impossible to work for other forms of government reform if government officials can not be held responsible for their actions through fair and open elections, and these elections must allow all Americans to vote and have their votes fairly counted. Furthermore, the government could be doing much more to get more people to the polls. Voting rates today are abysmal, and the government needs to take an active role to raise them. Innovative We're looking for policy challenges where innovation is needed: where there isn't already a clear solution or best practices, but solutions can be developed creatively. Our goal is to develop options, not to lobby or advocate for a solution that is already known or to debate among several yes or no outcomes or pre-defined policy choices. Other organizations do the important work of debating and lobbying, that's just not our place in the process. Typically if you're looking at a standard policy debate you can apply what's known as the "Roosevelt Reframe" to develop new strategies to advance shared values. So rather than "should we engage in race-based affirmative action in college admissions" to which the potential answers are "yes" and "no", you can ask "how do we make our colleges more diverse", a goal we hope is shared by those on both sides of that debate. There is great room for improvement in current voting practices. From work on polling locations, to timing of voting, to voting methods, there has been little change in the last few decades. Feasible Approachable: given the level of research and discourse already available and given who else is working on the issue, college students with a range of experience levels and with varied types of expertise can contribute meaningfully to the debate and are likely to think of good ideas. We don't want something so technical only engineering majors can contribute to it, or something that is already dominated by another think tank or advocacy organization. Practical: the challenge is stated as a specific, measurable, and achievable goal, incremental progress toward which could be made by chipping away at the problem at various levels of government. The statement is not too broad or too narrow. One good way to make sure something is a good policy challenge rather than a debate or advocacy problem is to think of what sorts of innovative ideas might be produced for the 25 ideas publication series on that topic. This is an issue that is important to every community across America. No community has the kind of voter turn out they might wish. Voting rights can be addressed both in terms of Get out the Vote policies as well as policies relevant to creating fair voting access. Comments Kai H Stinchcombe, Mon 9 Jul 9:40 am PST: I think this is not the best one for the expo but I hope something like it is selected at Hyde Park. It might be slightly broadened to be about "genuine representation" so it could include campaign finance, transparent legislative processes, good legislative districting, etc.   The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || (202) 833-1359