Make sure that every voice has a chance to be heard, and citizens can exercise their constitutional and democratic rights
A democracy that does not protect the people’s right to vote is no democracy at all. Yet across the nation, barriers to the ballot box persist—voter purges, gerrymandering, ID laws, and polling place closures designed to silence the people. The right to vote should not depend on race, wealth, ZIP code, or political affiliation. It must be guaranteed to every adult American citizen.
America’s Presidential election system is also deeply flawed. The Electoral College’s winner-take-all system allows a candidate to lose the popular vote but still win the presidency, while also applying unequal weight to votes from state to state. For example, a voter in Wyoming has 3.6 times more influence in presidential elections than a voter in California.
The end result is a system where Presidential candidates focus only on a handful of swing states, a system where a President can take office without winning the most votes, and a system wherein voters in many states are essentially unable to affect the outcome of presidential elections.
At Project 2029, we believe that every American’s vote should matter equally. We need to build a system where every vote counts the same, regardless of where a voter calls home. A system where the presidential candidate with the most votes doesn’t end up losing the election. A system that doesn’t require citizens to jump through endless hoops to exercise their constitutionally-enshrined democratic right to vote. And a system that doesn’t allow politicians to rig maps in their favor to manipulate electoral outcomes.
Our policy platform includes robust initiatives aimed at improving the fairness and accessibility of American democracy, such as:
Supporting the implementation of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to transition Presidential elections to a fairer, modern, one-person-one-vote democratic system.
Rescinding Executive Order 14248, which ordered the Election Assistance Commission to enact voter suppression tactics such as stricter voter ID rules. This order also directed the Attorney General to take legal action against states that count absentee or mail-in ballots received after Election Day in an attempt to discard millions of legal votes in future elections.
Restoring Executive Order 14019, which directs federal agencies to enhance voter registration and participation by providing voter registration services during routine interactions with the public, distributing vote-by-mail applications, offering multilingual election information, and collaborating with nonpartisan organizations to facilitate voter engagement.
Providing resources to states and local municipalities via existing grant programs to make voting more accessible and equitable for all Americans. Such measures include providing funding for additional polling locations and voter registration initiatives.
Promoting policies to reverse the effects of state-level political gerrymandering. In Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the Supreme Court determined that federal courts could not decide whether a map is unfairly partisan, so action must be taken in state courts and legislatures to combat political gerrymandering tactics that disenfranchise voters. To drive adoption, federal agencies shall, where possible, condition eligibility for selected federal funding streams on a state’s demonstrated progress toward taking reapportionment out of the hands of politicians and putting it in the hands of non-partisan committees with equal numbers of members representing each political party.
Supporting the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in municipal, statewide, and party primary elections to improve the democratic process by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. This system prevents people's votes from being "wasted" after candidates drop out of the race, and encourages coalition-building among contenders.
