About the Voting Rights Program
The Voting Rights Program aims to promote advanced research and teaching relating to election law and the electoral process, and provide opportunities for student engagement.
The Voting Rights Project is nonpartisan and includes a cooperative research venture, the Voting Rights Initiative (VRI), involving 100 students working under faculty direction by University of Michigan Law Professor Ellen Katz, as well as collaboration with the student-led Michigan Voting Project student organization.
The Michigan Voting Project, also nonpartisan, is faculty sponsored and student-led and connects the University of Michigan Law School community with voter registration, election monitoring, and voter education projects.
Our Research
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was landmark legislation in the United States, and for Professor Ellen Katz and many Michigan Law students, it has been an ongoing laboratory for research. Katz created the Voting Rights Initiative at the Law School to provide data about the past and present status of minority participation in the political process.
The findings have served to inform courts, Congress, and public debate. For Katz, whose scholarship addresses questions of minority representation, political equality, and the role of institutions in crafting and implementing anti-discrimination laws
The Voting Rights Initiative research explores how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act operates over time. VRI’s 2006 report documented Section 2 claims brought between June 29, 1982, and December 31, 2005, that resulted in one or more decisions published or available on Westlaw or Lexis.
A draft of the 2006 report and accompanying database were included in the evidentiary record assembled by Congress when it reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 2006. Subsequent judicial rulings addressing the constitutionality of the 2006 reauthorization relied on the report.
In 2022, the VRI published a website and database documenting Section 2 litigation from June 29, 1982 through December 31, 2021.
Election Volunteer Opportunities
The Voting Rights Program in collaboration with the Michigan Voting Project connects University of Michigan law students with non-partisan opportunities to participate in the electoral process.
