Essays on Improving the
Administration of Elections in the
United States and Illinois
Final Report of the 2006-2007 University of Illinois Civic Leadership
Practicum
Mark Clifton Brown
Emily A. Renwick
with Brian J. Gaines and Kasey L. Umland
© 2007
2007 Civic Leadership Practicum Final Report
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………….1
About the Authors……………………………………………………………...6
1. Corporate Campaign Contributions and Roll Call Voting…….……………7
2. Drawing Maps and Dropping Out: Redistricting and Uncontestedness…...32
3. Would a Return to Cumulative Voting Bring Back Competition?...............64
4. Straight-Party Ballot Option: Voting Right or Relic?………………….......88
5. Machinery of Democracy: Public Confidence in Voting….............……...105
6. Internet Voting: Inevitable or Ill-Advised?……………………………….132
7. Ideological Clustering in Online Social Networks……....………………..160
References……………………………………………………………………181
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Essays on Improving the Administration of Elections in the United States and Illinois
Introduction
This volume is the culmination of the first-ever research practicum undertaken by
the fellows of the Civic Leadership Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. Throughout the 2006-07 academic year, the class met in a regular seminar to
discuss the implementation of American public elections, and what improvements might
be appropriate and feasible. We read a wide range of studies, from papers in academic
journals, to technical reports, to popular-press books peddling somewhat wild-eyed
conspiracy theories about the 2004 presidential election. The seven chapters that follow
report original research on electoral institutions undertaken by the first fellows to complete
Masters of Arts degrees through the Civic Leadership Program.
Early in the year, we jointly reached the decision that the range of possible topics
was gigantic, and that it would be impossible to produce an exha