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Democracy and Election Administration Webinar Series

Redistricting Reforms

Redistricting will play a major role in all state elections for the next decade. Some states, such as California, have attempted to reform how their state draws the legislative lines. But redistricting issues include not only who will draw the map but what should or shouldn’t be included. This webinar will consider a wide range of issues related to redistricting, from California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission to the undemocratic process of prison gerrymandering.

Time November, 16 2010 at 1:00pm EST

Presenters

Kathay Feng, Executive Director of Common Cause California
California Common Cause’s Executive Director, Kathay Feng, brings over ten years of experience working in the area of election reform. California Common Cause has anchored a statewide coalition of election reform groups, called California Voter Empowerment Circle (CalVEC), that meets regularly to talk about major election policies. She recently co-authored and played a leadership role in winning the passage of Prop. 11, to reform California ’s redistricting process. She sits on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee for the Help America Vote Act and the LA County Human Relations Commission. Prior to joining Common Cause in 2005, she directed the Voting Rights and Anti-discrimination Unit of Asian Pacific American Legal Center. She is a graduate of UCLA Law School and Cornell University.

(e): kfeng@commoncause.org

Peter Wagner, Executive Director of the Prison Policy Initiative
Peter Wagner teaches, lectures, and writes about the negative impact of mass incarceration in the United States. His current focus is on demonstrating - through graphics, legal research, and state-by-state analyses - how the U.S. Census Bureau's practice of counting the nation's mostly urban prisoners as residents of the often remote communities in which they are incarcerated distorts the democratic process. The New York Times editorial board has written 11 editorials supporting his efforts to change the way prisoners are counted, and the Boston Globe identified him as the "leading public critic" of the prisoner miscount. He has presented his research at national and international conferences and meetings, including a Census Bureau Symposium, a meeting of the National Academies, and keynote addresses at Harvard and Brown Universities. Mr. Wagner's publications include Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout in New York (2002); The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003); and, with Eric Lotke, Prisoners of the Census: Electoral and Financial Consequences of Counting Prisoners Where They Go, Not Where They Come From, [PDF] 24 Pace L. Rev. 587 (2004).

(e): pwagner@prisonpolicy.org

Brenda Wright, Director of Demos’ Democracy Program
Brenda joined Demos in January 2007 with 18 years of experience in litigation, public education, advocacy and media appearances on voting rights, campaign finance reform and election reform issues. She directs Demos' litigation initiatives in the Democracy Program and participates in Demos' research and policy work on democracy and voting rights issues, working out of Demos' Boston office. Before joining Demos, Brenda served as Managing Attorney at the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston. Brenda also served previously as Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.

(e): bwright@demos.org

Presentation

Brenda Wright Presentation

Peter Wagner Presentation

Kathay Feng Presentation

Materials

Peter Wagner PowerPoint

Kathay Feng PowerPoint