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How the Heck Do You Get Angelenos Into the Streets (and Maybe Even to the...
Low voter turnout has become as much a part of Los Angeles as the Dodgers and sunshine. Eric Garcetti was elected mayor this year with the votes of only 222,300 Angelenos, less than 6 percent of his...
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The Right Way to Reschedule L.A.’s Elections
Until a change in the city charter 20 years ago, voters in some parts of Los Angeles were able to take stubs from their ballot, present them to local independent doughnut shops and receive a free dozen...
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I’m a Strong Supporter of L.A. Mayor What’s-His-Face
So few Angelenos voted this year that Eric Garcetti was elected mayor with just 222,300 votes—the same number it took to get elected mayor in the 1930s, when L.A. was half its present size. At a...
View ArticleUCLA Public Affairs Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr.
Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. is dean of the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs; his research focuses on strategic communications, public policy, electoral politics, and racial and ethnic politics. Before...
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The Real Reason Why Californians Don’t Vote
In the stages of grief, media coverage of California voters’ low turnout in the June primary jumped denial, and headed straight to anger and bargaining. “Something amazing happened in California on...
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Who Stole My Polling Place?
Out of all the election-related direct mailers I’ve received these past few months none was more crucial than the one that arrived the afternoon of election day: June 3. A flier from the Los Angeles...
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Why Are Californians Obsessed With Where Their Politicians Live?
Admit it: You’re not exactly sure where you live, are you? Don’t be embarrassed to acknowledge that, beyond knowing your street address, you’re a little uncertain. California has so many thousands of...
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When 82 Percent Voter Turnout Isn’t Good Enough
I did not receive the warmest welcome from my colleagues four years ago, at my very first meeting of the Falun Election Commission. In fact, most members of the authority in Falun, the Swedish city of...
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I Do the Math That Keeps Elections Honest
I was standing outside a metal warehouse building that was part of the Volusia County, Florida elections department on November 16, 2004, worried that I might leave empty-handed. I had come to inspect...
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Let’s Put Voting Machines in In-N-Out Burger
Like a man who bangs his head against the wall to cure a headache, Los Angeles will hold more municipal elections this March. The certain result: another low-turnout embarrassment that draws the usual...
View ArticleCan Denmark Still Drink to Democracy?
No country celebrates its democracy like Denmark. But is that democracy still worth celebrating? During Denmark’s election last week, voters threw out their center-left government in favor of the...
View ArticleHow the Politics of Resentment Corrupted Wisconsin’s Culture of Nice
The April 5 presidential primaries in Wisconsin are expected to be close in both parties, and critical to deciding the Republican contest between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. And the winners will be...
View ArticleThe Philippines Election was Corrupt—and a Victory for Democracy
The Philippines is a sports-loving nation—from boxing to basketball. Seven years ago, the government even named the martial art known as Modern Arnis as our national sport.But the country’s actual...
View ArticleThe Cure for Your #Regrexit Democratic Hangover
The #Regrexit hashtag encapsulates Britain’s morning-after regrets since a referendum in which nearly 52 percent of voters opted to leave the European Union. A Daily Mail poll estimates that more than...
View ArticleI’ll Vote, But First, Let Me Take A Selfie
Voting, James Madison once wrote, is fundamental in a constitutional republic like America. Yet “at the same time,” he noted, its “regulation” is “a task of peculiar delicacy.”Madison was talking about...
View ArticleIt Takes More Than a Naked Katy Perry to Get Out the Vote
Katy Perry’s new Rock the Vote video offers a great strategy for encouraging engagement in democracy—prurient interest. She tries to vote naked, and ends up being arrested and taken away. But a strong...
View ArticleHow Voting Selfies Brought Down South Korea’s Conservative Majority
Korean elections are no longer driven by the old.For more than 16 years, older voters in Korea dominated politics, giving the conservatives a big advantage—and a majority in the national...
View ArticleDid Hamburg’s Olympic Bid Destroy Its Local Democracy?
Democracy killed a bid to bring the Olympics to Hamburg, Germany, where I live. But in the process, the Olympics dealt a big blow to our local democracy.I’ve worked on democratic issues, especially...
View ArticleWhy Hand Counting Votes Makes Every Vote Count
Just before the polls closed on election night, I met with 12 of my townspeople at our town hall in Maine, raised my right hand, and took an oath to uphold the federal and state constitutions.We were...
View ArticleVulnerable Voting Machines Are Putting America At Risk
Although more than half the country may be unhappy with the results, America dodged a bullet on Election Day. That is, our voting machines generally held up. The tabulations they produced were not so...
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