What will become of election reform without a contested presidential contest?
Justin Levitt, an elections expert who worked as national voter protection counsel for the Democratic National Committee, said election reform might come easier given the overall lack of controversy. “The fact that the election was decisive and not disputed at least for president and most other candidates makes it possible to have these discussions without a lot of other noise, without conspiracy theories and charges of political positioning,” said Levitt, who previously worked and plans to return as counsel to the Brennan Center for Justice. “A lot of reform efforts after 2004 had a crosscurrent of outrage. Those conversations are more possible now.” How much priority the Democrat-led Congress plans to give election reform in Barack Obama’s first term is unclear. Advocates are hopeful that reforming voter registration rules and issues of resource allocation to historically disenfranchised communities will be top priorities. “People can actually agree that we can better serve the publi
