Overview

The Pew Center on the States Election Initiatives aim to foster an election system that achieves the highest standards of accuracy, convenience, efficiency and security.  As part of the Pew Center on the States’ broader efforts to identify and encourage effective policy approaches to critical issues facing states, we support research that examines the most pressing election problems and undertake a broad array of pilot projects to address issues identified during elections.   

In 2007, The Pew Center on the States initially launched a Make Voting Work project to promote policies, practices and technologies to work toward a state-of-the-art election system. In January 2009, the project merged with Pew’s electionline.org, a trusted resource and clearinghouse for election administration news, research and analysis, to leverage our resources and form the broader Pew Center on the States Election Initiatives. While our research encompasses a broad range of election issues, our current focus areas include military and overseas citizens voting, voter registration modernization, voting information and data-driven performance of election systems.   Electionline.org continues to provide timely, centralized and comprehensive news, research and analysis about the latest trends in election reform.  

Our Election Initiatives undertake pilot projects to field test potential solutions under the stress of real-world conditions, which inform our efforts to identify cost-effective, efficient policies, practices and technologies that address the key challenges facing the election system:

Building an election system that reflects the way people live.  American elections operate today much as they did at the turn of the 20th century. PCS Election Initiatives aspire to bring elections into the 21st century with research that will advance solutions to modernize the voter registration system, improve the voting process for military and overseas voters and study new models for casting ballots that accommodate a modern, mobile society.  

Putting voters in charge of their own voting experience. Despite the reforms since the 2000 election, the election process continues to overlook the most important part: the voter. PCS Election Initiatives seek to empower voters by using technology to make personalized voter information widely and equally available via the Internet and other means.

Eliminating barriers to innovation. Although voters recognize the need for reform, America’s election system has been remarkably resistant to change.  PCS Election Initiatives work to lower these barriers by encouraging policy makers and vendors to focus on data, not anecdotes to make informed decisions.  Through better collection of election data and improved measures of performance, we foster innovative, evidence-based solutions to help states overcome barriers to innovation in election reform.

The Pew Center on the States Election Initiatives employs the following techniques as part of a comprehensive strategy to build a better election system:

  • Diagnosing current problems in U.S. elections
  • Evaluating state and local innovations in election reform
  • Promoting new linkages among research disciplines, fields of technical expertise, election stakeholders and geographic areas in a way that promotes dialogue and creativity in the search for solutions
  • Reaching out to the business, high-tech and international election communities to tap their expertise and develop pilot innovations in election administration
  • Disseminating best practices and other analyses to policy makers, election officials, advocates and the general public
  • Evaluating measures of election performance and providing reference points for the public and policy makers, who often rely on anecdotal evidence, poorly-grounded news headlines or partisan conjecture

Pew recognizes that successful election reform must involve a variety of stakeholders in the process.  We consult and coordinate with election officials, policy makers, researchers, technology experts, businesses and other stakeholders in the election process to help guide our commitment to election modernization. We also sponsor events and working groups that bring election officials, policy makers, journalists, academics and other interested parties together to share ideas and insights.