The University of Idaho College of Law ​Idaho Law Review ​ is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a special symposium volume entitled “Democracy Evolved: The Future of American Elections.” 

Select essays from this symposium volume will be presented at a symposium conference co-sponsored by the ​Idaho Law Review ​ and the University of Idaho’s James A. and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research.

We invite submissions in the form of a short essay, 5 to 15 manuscript pages in length, that engage the following thought-experiment. 

In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified, formally prohibiting vote denial on the basis of race. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting vote denial on the basis of sex. In the 1960s, the Supreme Court established the one-person-one-vote-principle and Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act. In 2000, the Supreme Court decided the presidential election in Bush v. Gore. In 2016, the country experienced one of the most controversial and polarizing elections in modern history. On the eve of the 2020 election, we examine American democracy and ask: where are we now, and where might we be – 4 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years, or even 150 years from now?

Your submission can focus on any aspect of the American electoral system and adopt any time horizon. Our goal is to facilitate a robust discussion addressing a range of issues concerning national, state, and local elections and reflecting a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum. We encourage authors to “think big” and offer bold new visions of electoral rules and institutions that illuminate the national debate at this critical moment in the evolution of American democracy.

We plan to publish a rich collection of essays in our symposium volume and invite some authors to present their essays at the symposium conference on Friday, April 3, 2020 at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise, Idaho.

If you are interested in participating, please submit a one-page abstract of your proposed essay to Sydney Sears, Chief Symposium Editor, ​sear8303@vandals.uidaho.edu​, and Audrey Thorne, Symposium Editor, ​thor9144@vandals.uidaho.edu  as soon as possible, but no later than November 20, 2019.