Professor @Harvard Kennedy School. Author of The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the U.S. and Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

Joined June 2020
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Alex Keyssar retweeted
.@AlexKeyssar says the first few weeks of the Trump administration may constitute the most severe attack on the rule of law in the U.S. since the Civil War. Read more about Professor Keyssar's thoughts ➡️ ken.sc/41iwzxN
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Looking at exit polls and wondering if "non-college" is actually a good proxy for "working class." Anyone have any thoughts (or information!) on this?
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Alex Keyssar retweeted
NEW:📣 Democracy remains an unfinished project. Ahead of the US election, our new episode with @Harvard Professor @AlexKeyssar is a must-listen to see what's at stake and how to protect the right to vote: thegravity.fm/#/episode/61
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Given Trump's increasingly evident deterioration, shouldn't more attention be focused on the likelihood that a Trump victory would mean that JD Vance will soon become president? How scary is that?
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You are asking for alot, my good friend and colleague. If they can match half of those features, it will be remarkable -- and promising.
21 Jul 2024
In part, this is the test of the democratic (small-d) innovation skills of the DNC - can they craft a process that is legitimate, compelling, inclusive, participatory, and wise - to select the Democratic candidate - RCV? Citizen Assemblies? Public deliberation?
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Alex Keyssar retweeted
21 Jul 2024
In part, this is the test of the democratic (small-d) innovation skills of the DNC - can they craft a process that is legitimate, compelling, inclusive, participatory, and wise - to select the Democratic candidate - RCV? Citizen Assemblies? Public deliberation?
Remarkable leadership shown by Joe Biden. Now it falls to the DNC to show equal leadership by having an open process to determine the best candidate(s) to take on Trump - Vance in November. The goal should be simple - to win.
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The French elections offer food for thought for us in the U.S. Their two-round majoritarian system not only produced a different outcome than the first round; it generated extraordinary, energetic political mobilization and popular engagement between the two rounds. Hmmm.
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Has there ever been a US president who complained that he could not do his job effectively because he feared criminal prosecution? Yet the Scotus majority believes the danger of that occurring outweighs the danger of allowing a chief executive to commit criminal acts. Weird.
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A fine conversation with an exceptionally well informed interviewer!
On the latest episode of the @DemParadox podcast, @AlexKeyssar discusses the history of the Electoral College, the different attempts to reform it and why those measures failed, and what it might take for a reform to finally succeed 🎧 Listen here ⤵️ democracyparadox.com/2024/05…
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Alex Keyssar retweeted
8 Apr 2024
On the brief, historians @earlymodjustice @rzhist @JRakove @TheGNapp @Jane_C_Manners @gauthamrao @AlexKeyssar @jbf1755 Saul Cornell, Jane Calvert, David Konig, Jill Lepore, Peter Onuf, Michael Ross, and Alan Taylor. The lawyers: Friedman Kaplan LLP and @BrennanCenter.
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We have our work cut out for us. . ..
17 Jan 2024
Replying to @BrennanCenter
The council's 18 members include @earlymodjustice @TheGNapp @AlexKeyssar @Jane_C_Manners @katemasur @JRakove @gauthamrao @narosenblum @rachelshelden @JTuckerHistory @rzhist and more. To learn more about council members: brennancenter.org/historians…
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Alex Keyssar retweeted
17 Jan 2024
Replying to @BrennanCenter
The council's 18 members include @earlymodjustice @TheGNapp @AlexKeyssar @Jane_C_Manners @katemasur @JRakove @gauthamrao @narosenblum @rachelshelden @JTuckerHistory @rzhist and more. To learn more about council members: brennancenter.org/historians…
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Glad to have participated in this excellent series; we need to have more far more public discussion of methods to abolish or significantly reform the Electoral College. We can't let the difficulty of the challenge make us passive.
On the most recent episode of the podcast Democracy's Chief Executive, Ash Center's @AlexKeyssar sits down with the hosts to discuss the history of the Electoral College and what potential reforms for the Electoral College may look like 🎧 Listen here ⤵️ podcasters.spotify.com/pod/s…
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Glad to work with Tom Wolf and the Brennan Center on this piece that just appeared in Newsweek. newsweek.com/this-supreme-co…
Watch out for #SCOTUS originalism as the term begins! It's not history, warn @AlexKeyssar and @TomTMWolf. To do their jobs well, historians acknowledge that the past is complex and context is important. Originalists do neither, with devastating results. bit.ly/45fD5oY
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And that champion of a constitutional amendment would, like Bayh, have to be strategically situated on the right Senate committees and sub-committees. Not impossible at all but requires some forethought.
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washingtonpost.com/opinions/… An important column, well worth reading as the NPVIC moves closer to passage in the requisite number of states; danger lurks here, and we need a broad national discussion of other methods of getting rid of the Electoral College. @jawillick
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