Democracies need strong voter turnout to function, and participation in the United States changes dramatically from election to election. On April 28, the Sumners Foundation, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) and the LBJ School's Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion presented Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues: The Future of Voting, a nonpartisan conversation exploring the current landscape of voter participation nationally and in Texas, as well as issues that have sparked debate across the political spectrum since the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder ruling.
Panelists discussed voter registration and access, voter databases and governance, and voting integrity and security, and debated how the future of voting could evolve in the midst of our current polarization, or if there are potential bipartisan policy solutions.
Panelists:
James Slattery, Senior Staff Attorney, Texas Civil Rights Project
James Slattery serves as a senior staff attorney with the Voting Rights Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, leading the organization's election protection efforts during the 2020 election and voting rights advocacy during the 2021 Texas Legislative Session. Previously, he also led TCRP's initiative to boost high school voter registration rates in Texas and encourage voting and civic participation by young voters. Slattery originally came to Texas as deputy voter protection director for the Wendy Davis campaign in 2014 and worked on voting rights issues on President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign and the Terry McAuliffe for Governor of Virginia campaign in 2013. He also served in the Obama administration as director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Slattery practiced law as an associate attorney at Wiley Rein LLP from 2007 to 2012 and served as a law clerk for a U.S. District Court and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge from 2005 to 2007. He graduated magna cum laude from Pepperdine University School of Law in 2005 and received a B.A., summa cum laude, in political science from Lipscomb University. @jcslattery
Dr. Richard Johnson III, Director, Booker T. Washington Initiative, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Richard A. Johnson, Ed.D., is the director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Booker T. Washington Initiative, which examines the effects of public policy on African-American communities. An educator for more than 20 years, Johnson has extensive experience in teaching and research. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas Mental Science Institute, studying the efficacy of counseling and pharmacological therapy on cocaine and heroin addicts. He began counseling inner-city adolescent males and founded an academy for troubled boys, which provided education, discipline and residential substance abuse treatment. In 2007, Johnson began teaching and researching in the areas of psychology and academic performance. He was the president of the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation for nearly two decades, building more than 20 churches inside prison walls. In addition, he served as the co-founder and second president of 100 Black Men Metropolitan Houston, vice president of development for 100 Black Men San Antonio, and co-chair of the education committee of the NAACP, Houston.
Moderator: Jen Rice, Houston Public Media
Jen Rice is the City Hall reporter at Houston Public Media, where she covers topics like Houston City Council and housing. She graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and has a master's degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. @jen_rice_
Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues
The Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues event series consists of conversations at the LBJ School featuring thought leaders, scholars, and activists from a wide variety of backgrounds who will offer insight, analysis, and provocation regarding the challenges and opportunities facing our democracy now and in the future. Our intention is to introduce our community of students, faculty, staff and alumni to a series of speakers who can challenge us to grow in new and unexpected ways.
We believe that Strengthening Democracy Through Civil Dialogues preserves freedom for all people to enter the civic arena in ways that cultivate respectful, constructive, and thought-provoking dialogue and debate that will inspire our community to better construct policy solutions.