Part IV. State Profiles

About the Laboratories of Democracy Database

The Laboratories of Democracy database is a platform for information and ideas about state-level reform across the United States.The project was envisioned in 2016 by California Forward, a bipartisan civic-leadership organization, to highlight the energy and prospects for reform not only in their own state, the largest and in recent years the most innovative, but across the country. In February 2017, New America’s Political Reform program, at California Forward’s invitation, took up the project and expanded it. New America will continue to add and update information in order to make this the most useful and comprehensive resource on state election laws available. In addition to the data about state reforms, the Laboratories of Democracy database offers analytical resources on the effectiveness and challenges posed by various reforms.

About the Political Reform Program

Since its inception in 2014, New America’s Political Reform program has aimed to bring fresh perspectives and analysis to the cause of renewing American democracy and understanding the market for political power. While not an advocacy organization and not focused on a single solution, we aspire to support effective advocacy and reform by highlighting promising projects, identifying concerns or unintended consequences, opening up new areas of conversation, and connecting issues that are often siloed in the reform world. Our staff and fellows publish widely on politics and reform, and have issued comprehensive visions of new agendas for campaign reform, congressional capacity, participatory democracy, and the formation of transpartisan political alliances.