We, the undersigned organizations, endorse the following call to action.

A vibrant and healthy representative democracy demands, at the very least, diverse representation, meaningful choices across the political spectrum, full participation before and after elections, robust public debate, efficient and effective election administration, and policy that corresponds with the will of the majority while respecting the rights and interests of those in the minority. Voters must hear from a range of candidates, have a reasonable chance of electing their preferred representatives and believe that they are electing a responsive and accountable government that makes a positive difference in their lives. Many Americans are proud of our democracy and political reformers can be justifiably proud of victories advancing democracy, yet we can -- and must -- do better. Consider that:  

• The majority of Supreme Court Justices in Bush v. Gore declared that voters have no fundamental right to vote in presidential elections.
• The United States ranks 139th in the world in voter turnout in national elections since 1945, and turnout has been dropping, particularly among young people and particularly in local and state elections. Nearly a third of adult Americans are not even registered to vote.
• The United States is 59th in world rankings of representation by women. Only 14% of Members of Congress are women, and the number of female state legislators has declined since 1998
• The U.S. Senate lacks a single African American or Latino member, and the number of African Americans and Asian Pacific Americans in the U.S. House has declined since 1994. People of color are under-represented in nearly every state legislature.
• More than 4.5 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of felony disfranchisement laws that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color, including one out of every eight adult African American men.
• More than half a million Americans in our nation's capital are denied voting representation in the U.S Congress despite the fact that they fulfill all of the same responsibilities of citizenship shared by Americans living in states and despite Congress having the final say over all local matters.
• Only four U.S. House incumbents lost to non-incumbent challengers in 2002 -- the fewest ever. State legislative elections are often even less competitive, with fully 40 percent of state legislative races since 1996 not even being contested by both major parties.
• Although the 2000 election debacle led to federal and state action to improve the infrastructure of our elections, many states are making it harder to vote, not easier.
• Despite the passage of federal campaign finance reform legislation in 2002, money spent in campaigns and on lobbying at federal, state and local levels continues to have an excessively powerful impact on electoral politics and policy-making.  

Given this "democracy deficit," it should not surprise us that our political leadership often fails to address the hopes and needs of average Americans.  To attain a democracy that addresses the needs and aspirations of the American people, we must embrace and strive to adopt a range of critical reforms. Just as reformers fought for and won the expansion of suffrage over the decades, we must be ready to take advantage of opportunities as they emerge at the federal level and in the states. Claiming democracy will require a sustained focused and coordinated effort, both within states and nationally.

We strongly believe that the pro-democracy movement would increase its effectiveness through greater coordination among national, state and local reformers, and that the articulation of a shared vision and concrete goals would facilitate stronger working relationships and more effective coalitions. In the current climate of struggle for democracy in other nations, and given the aforementioned shortcomings of our own democracy, the time is ripe to launch an effort at home to celebrate, secure, expand and exercise the power of the right to vote. We believe that this vision has the potential to be the string that binds together the many diverse efforts to make our democracy more vibrant, more representative and more genuine.

We therefore join together in a call for a "Claim Democracy" conference on November 22-23 in Washington, D.C. We plan to participate in this conference and to encourage staff members and supporters to participate. We support the goal of bringing together a diverse range of scholars, elected officials and national, state and local reformers and activists to focus attention on the need to strengthen the power of our right to vote and to build a broad pro-democracy movement.

Advancement Project
Alliance for Better Campaigns
Alliance for Democracy
American Association of People with Disabilities
American Town Hall
American University's Improving Campaign Conduct Project
Andrew Young National Center for Social Change
Appleseed Electoral Reform Project
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)  
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
BostonVOTE
Brennan Center for Justice
Californians for Electoral Reform
Campaign for America's Future
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Voting and Democracy
Citizen Works
Common Cause
Commonwealth Coalition (Mass.)
DC Vote
Democracy Action Project
Democracy Matters
Democracy South
Democracy Works
Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action
Fannie Lou Hamer Project
Friends of the Earth
Fund for Constitutional Government
Georgia Rural Urban Summit
Greenlining Institute
Illinois Campaign for Political Reform
Independent Progressive Politics Network
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Action
Institute for the Study of Civic Values
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR)
League of Women Voters of the United States
Maryland Voting Rights Restoration Coalition
MassVOTE
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition
Midwest Democracy Center
NAACP National Voter Fund
The Nation
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC)
National Civic League
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
National Community Reinvestment Coalition
National Council of La Raza
National Organization for Women
National Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
National Urban League
National Voting Rights Institute
National Women's Alliance
New Democracy Project
Northeast Action
Ohio Citizen Action
Open Debates
Organizers' Collaborative
People for the American Way
Progressive Challenge, Institute for Policy Studies
Progressive Populist
Progressive Review
Project Vote
Public Campaign
Public Citizen
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF)
ReclaimDemocacy.Org
Right to Vote: National Campaign to Restore Voting Rights
Rock the Vote
Southwest Voter Research and Education Project
USAction
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG)
United States Student Association (USSA)
White House Project
Willie C. Velazquez Institute
WomenVote
Working Assets
Yes I Will