BLOG ROLL
Election Law blog (Rick Hasen)
Personal Democracy Forum
Allison Fine (Demos Senior fellow)
Equal Vote (Dan Tokaji)
Brennan Center for Justice
FairVote
Public Campaign
Free and Fair (Ned Foley)
Election Updates
Ideas & Action Blog
- Now That We All Agree That We Need Consumer Protection In The Credit Card Market, Let's Make It Happen Already
- Posted by Caleb Gibson at 11:57 AM on December 23, 2008
As the financial sector continues to reap the consequences of the subprime debacle, banks are taking steps to increase profits on credit cards in order to cover losses in other areas. On September 28th, the Wall Street Journal reported that "credit-card issuers have been decreasing credit limits in the wake of the subprime meltdown. Folks with good credit scores and solid credit histories are now getting caught in the fray."
Tags: Debt | Credit Card Debt | Lending Industry
-
| Print This
- Credit Card Regulation: A Holiday Gift to be Opened in 2010
- Posted by Jose Garcia at 11:36 AM on December 19, 2008
Consumers received an early holiday present this year from the Federal Reserve Board in the form of new regulations for the credit card industry.
Tags: Debt | Credit Card Debt | Regulation | Lending Industry
-
| Print This
- Demos to Release a Guide to Implementing EDR in Early January
- Posted by Cristina Vasile at 4:01 PM on December 15, 2008
Since the 2004 presidential elections, three states have implemented Election Day Registration (EDR). A number of states considered EDR proposals last year and the expectation is that EDR bills will be introduced in over 20 states in 2009.
-
| Print This
- Yet Another Election Decided by Provisional Ballots...
- Posted by Scott Novakowski at 12:50 PM on December 8, 2008
In yet another election decided by provisional ballots--ballots of last resort given to individuals whose names are not on the voter rolls--Democrat Mary-Jo Kilroy defeated her opponent, Republican Steve Stivers, for Ohio's 15th District congressional seat by a margin of 2,311 votes. Luckily, Kilroy's margin of victory was larger than the approximately 1,000 provisional ballots in Franklin County ordered to be rejected in a recent decision of the Ohio Supreme Court. These ballots were discarded on technicalities even though all 1,000 voters were eligible and properly registered to vote.
Tags: Election Day Registration | Voter Fraud, Voter ID and Election Integrity | Provisional Balloting | Election Administration
-
| Print This
- Public Funding of Elections in New Hampshire
- Posted by Stuart Comstock-Gay at 5:35 PM on December 5, 2008
Obscured by the stunning $750 million raised by the Obama campaign is the compelling and continuing case for public financing of elections. Because while the President-elect was able to inspire millions of donors, most candidates continue to struggle to raise adequate funds. New Hampshire is the latest state to weigh in on public financing.
Tags: Campaign Finance
-
| Print This
- Paying the Price for High Costs of Higher Ed
- Posted by Viany Orozco at 3:45 PM on December 5, 2008
A new report, Measuring Up 2008, provides new evidence that the cost of higher education is out of reach for far too many families. The report finds that tuition costs have not only significantly outpaced income growth, but have grown more quickly than health care costs (page 8 of this report). The result is rising debt burdens for students--averaging $21,000 in 2007--and declining access to higher education for students from low-income families. Rising college costs, combined with dwindling financial aid, has reversed the educational progress the United States made in the post-war period.
Tags: Student Loans and Student Loan Debt | Millennial Generation/Young Adults
-
| Print This
- Credit Card Deregulation, Rest in Peace
- Posted by Jose Garcia at 2:04 PM on December 5, 2008
Credit card debt has been continuously increasing for decades. As families try to deal with higher costs of living and stagnant or declining wages compounded by a deregulated credit card market--one that has allowed "tricks and traps" in the form of business practices--families have been pushed to take on greater credit card debt.
Tags: Debt | Credit Card Debt | Lending Industry
-
| Print This
- Our Brand of Capitalism
- Posted by Tamara Draut at 11:13 AM on December 4, 2008
The past week in America will be marked by two events, one grim and one tragic, that confirmed the experiences and feelings of most Americans long before the news hit the papers or the airwaves. I am referring to the official announcement that the country is in a deep recession, and the death of Jdimytai Damour, who was killed by a stampede of shoppers while working at Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving.
Tags: Market Economy
-
| Print This
- The Fragility of Hope: Safeguarding the Promise of Meaningful Change with a New Politics
- Posted by Dianne Stewart at 12:47 PM on December 2, 2008
We are living through a promising, but fragile, moment in American history.
The public appears willing to suspend--at least temporarily--the cynicism with which it has viewed government and public officials. People are tentatively hopeful that they are witnessing the beginning of an era when elected officials will engage in effective problem-solving, setting aside the strident partisan squabbling and entrenched polar positions that people believe have stymied constructive action on health care, infrastructure, climate change, and other crucial issues.
-
| Print This
- Significant Legal Victory in Ohio
- Posted by Brenda Wright at 1:57 PM on November 26, 2008
There is good news just in time for Thanksgiving--the 6th Circuit has issued a terrific decision in our long-running case, League of Women Voters of Ohio v. Brunner. This is a very significant legal victory, finding that our allegations growing out of the serious problems with the 2004 election in Ohio, and deficiencies in the state's overall system of election administration going back decades, state a claim under the Equal Protection Clause and substantive Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Tags: Election Administration
-
| Print This
Past blog entries >>
Demos
220 Fifth Ave., 5th Flr. New York, NY 10001 | 212.633.1405 | info@demos.org
Home | About | Contact | Newsroom | Privacy Policy | Reprint Permission
This site is best viewed using Mozilla Firefox.