Deliberative Dialogue: Encouraging and Safeguarding Elections (Civic Engagement)

The Deliberative Dialogue series through the Medallion Program uses guides created by the National Issues Forum Institute to promote public deliberation about difficult public issues. This is not a debate, but instead an opportunity to dive into an issue and thoughtfully weigh all options.

Many Americans are concerned about the US election system although we don’t always agree on the main problem or how best to fix it. Is it too hard to vote? Is the system too easy to manipulate? Do we have rules that make voting fair and accessible to all? Are we doing enough to ensure accuracy and credibility?

In this workshop we will present three options for moving forward, each reflecting a different view of the problem and each suggesting a different set of ideas about what should be done. Most people will find something to agree with in all three approaches, but each also has trade-offs, risks, or drawbacks that need to be taken into account and worked through.

In thinking about different approaches, we will consider these questions:

- Would having uniform national standards for voting, instead of having state and local officials continue to set the rules, give us more confidence?
- Do ID requirements for voting, in order to help maintain the system's integrity, merely discourage voters by placing hurdles in their way?
- Would Americans see the voting system as more legitimate if the Electoral College were eliminated in favor of a national popular vote?
- Could some of the changes proposed here have unintended consequences? Could they fix some problems but cause new ones we haven't anticipated?

Facilitated by Andrew Gold, Associate Director for Center for Community Engagement

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Co-hosted with: Wilson Commons Student Activities, Center for Community Engagement

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