As we enter 2024—what may be the most critical year in our democracy—we offer a year-end update of our 2023 activities and emphasize our commitment to building a better future for our country and our presidential election system. This year-end update is on Making Every Vote Count’s (MEVC) ambitious plans, building on the achievements of 2023 and on the leadership role we have carved out for MEVC and its collaborating groups and individuals. We believe our role is to serve as objective assessors of the Electoral College system and how it works, as well as to draw attention and transparency to the harms it creates and to the reform proposals for improving it. MEVC is expanding its capabilities to deliver the groundbreaking insights that we have developed this past year.
Early in 2023, MEVC joined by collaborating groups and individuals, launched a two-pronged strategy to address the problems with our presidential election system and the Electoral College on which that system is based. One initiative has been to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the leading presidential election reform proposals. The other has been to broaden the base of Americans who are aware of and concerned about these issues, have a strong stake in them, and are willing to engage with them. MEVC has specifically identified and performed outreach to underrepresented groups and young voters as well as independent voters. These groups represent more voters than members of the two national parties combined.
In April 2023, MEVC hosted, with the Leadership Now Project, a well-received program on the harms and dangers of the Electoral College system and on reform options. Following that event, we assembled an active working group with considerable expertise and diverse views, who contributed to the preparation of a report outlining the ways in which our current system operates to distort our politics and thwart the will of the voters, as well as evaluating the leading reform proposals. We presented and discussed the working group's findings and plans at a September Zoom program with a select group of invitees, all deeply interested in these issues but not necessarily committed to a single reform option.
Since September 2023, MEVC has improved and expanded upon our Report on Improving Our Electoral College System, incorporating feedback from many organizations and including material on the impact of the Electoral College on underrepresented groups and young voters. In the face of many dangerous problems in our politics, we cannot lose sight of the fundamental structural issues that threaten our democracy and will continue to do so in 2024 and beyond.
Elizabeth A. Cavanagh
Chair/CEO, Making Every Vote Count Foundation