News Roundup › Post Katrina Elections

The decrease in the number of voters from 2003 to 2007 in the eight-parish New Orleans area was more than 100,000, a 23 percent decline, Chervenak said. The number of black voters dropped disproportionately, falling 41 percent compared with a 15 percent decrease among white voters, he said.

When Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in New Orleans, it did more than create a wave of evacuees fleeing the city. Democracy itself is now a disaster area. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has postponed city elections indefinitely, thereby extending the term of the city’s mayor by executive decree. Meanwhile, bureaucratic squabbling and flawed voting mechanics threaten to bar tens of thousands of people from future elections.

Source: Fair Vote

Some interesting proposals for shoring up our battered democracy.

Source: Fair Vote