New Voter’s Choice Act Report Released 

The California Voter’s Choice Act (VCA) was signed into law by Governor Brown in 2016. The VCA expands early voting and offers more flexible voting opportunities to voters in participating counties within the state. 

Many proponents of the new law had expectations that the VCA would help narrow persistent gaps in voter participation among California’s white voters and voters of color, among other outcomes.

A new report by a working group of voter engagement experts and election officials analyzes the impact of the VCA. It also includes recommended strategies for addressing voting gaps ahead of the 2024 elections. The Voters Choice Act: Impact Analysis and Recommendations was sponsored by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and Silicon Valley Community Foundation, with CID’s Mindy Romero serving as the principal researcher and advisor on the report.

Among several findings, the report found that so far it appears the VCA has had minimal impact in fixing California’s voter participation problems. Although eligible voter turnout was slightly higher in VCA versus non-VCA counties in 2022, overall turnout in California that year dropped to its lowest rate for a general election since the pre-VCA 2014 election.

The report also found that voter participation gaps—particularly for Latino and Asian American voters—continue to persist across elections and across VCA and non-VCA counties alike.

Read the full report here.

Youth (age 18-24) comprise 13.3% of California's eligible voters, and 52.6% of them voted in the 2020 presidential election. Just 19.1% participated in the 2022 midterm elections.

Increasing youth involvement in the civic process, and helping them better understand the importance and impact of voting, has long-been a priority for the Center for Inclusive Democracy.

As the 2024 election season gets underway and the drive to register voters gears up, CID was excited to participate in this year’s VoteSC National Voter Registration event on the USC campus Sept. 19, one of many such drives held around the country as part of National Voter Registration Day. 

CID met with USC students, providing them with voting information and resources, and encouraging them to exercise their right to vote in 2024. 

The event was an important reminder that we all need to do our part to make sure every young person we know gets out to vote in 2024!

Election officials are quitting in droves. Here’s why you should care

There has been a significant turnover of local election officials in Western states since 2020, with more than 40% being new to their roles. In four states — Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah — the turnover exceeds 50%. This turnover could have implications for upcoming elections due to the loss of experienced personnel.

Federal judge rules Georgia’s political district maps must be redrawn before 2024 elections

A federal judge has struck down Georgia’s political district maps and ordered state lawmakers to redraw them by Dec. 8, in a win for voting rights activists who argued the state’s maps diluted the power of Black voters. The judge ruled that the redrawn maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

MIT Mapping Election Administration and Election Science initiative

A new collaboration of the MIT Election and Data Science Lab and several teams of academic researchers has produced seven white papers assessing the current state of knowledge and practice in key areas of election administration.

CID’s Mindy Romero served as a co-author on two of the election white papers: 

• In-Person Voting Best Practices and New Areas for Research
• Vote-By-Mail in the United States - Best Practices and New Areas for Research

Poll: Californians Identify Problems, Solutions for Advancing a Multiracial Democracy

A series of polls this year from The Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) at UC Berkeley, with support from the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, provide an important snapshot of where there is progress and how far we still have to go to achieve a truly inclusive, multiracial democracy in California.  

Majority of Americans continue to favor moving away from Electoral College

A new Pew Research Poll shows that a majority of Americans would welcome a change to the way presidents are elected, feeling that the Electoral College has played an outsized role in some recent U.S. elections.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) say the way the president is elected should be changed so that the winner of the popular vote nationwide wins the presidency.

American Democracy Summit 



This September event brought together speakers from across the globe to discuss aspects of democracy and politics. CID Director Mindy Romero participated on a panel, titled “Language Access: A Critical Component of Building a Multi-Racial Democracy.”

Associated Press

The Associated Press reports on the Governor of Pennsylvania’s push to make it easier for people to register to vote when they are getting or renewing a driver’s license in the state. The article cites CID’s 2021 study that found automatic voter registration increased registration by several percentage points in states where it was in effect, and boosted the number of people actually voting by more than 1%.

Cal Matters

This Cal Matters article points out that while mail-in voting is widely thought of as benefiting Democrats, studies find it doesn’t favor one party over the other. CID’s Mindy Romero agrees. “We did not find that there was a party advantage like increasing turnout. It didn’t increase turnout more for Democrats versus Republicans,” she stated.