Elections

Hoping to reverse the trend of declining turnout, policymakers, researchers, election officials and advocates gathered to discuss the challenges and advances in the field of elections as well as explore new opportunities to improve participation and election administration in California.

California Forward’s got you covered; we asked each candidate to name two things you promise do to increase voter participation in California. Watch the video to find out what they said.

We thought it might be interesting to hear some comments from each of the candidates on why we’ve lagged and how we can improve voter participation.

In a report released Thursday, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) examines whether or to what extent recent efforts to broaden the electorate will translate into gains in voter participation.

There’s a growing chorus of elections officials, voter advocates and lawmakers questioning the way California fills mid-term vacancies in the state legislature. They often carry a price tag of over $1 million in tax dollars and uniformly see less than 30 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Continuing with our review of the past year, we sat one-on-one with Caroline Vance Bruister of CAFwd’s Partnership for Public Accountability.