Call for Papers Special Issue: United States Election 2020 and Its Consequences for Democracy.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs is dedicating a special issue to the United States election 2020 and its consequences for democracy. While 160 million people voted and registered their voices in last year’s election, voter intimidation and racial disparities in access to the ballot continued, thusly showing not only a deterioration in the election system’s effectiveness, but the unprecedented attempts to delegitimize and overturn the election results in some states led to a democracy crisis that has never been experienced in the United States. Although the 2020 election is over and all the Electoral College votes were eventually counted by Congress, efforts to subvert American democracy are on the rise. According to a United States Democracy Center report, as of June 2021 about 216 pieces of legislation were introduced in 41 states, including Texas that would impede election administration in the affected jurisdictions.

The Journal hopes to expand the understanding of lessons learned and offer recommendations for future elections. In view of this, the call for papers invites manuscripts that not only address the 2020 election’s problems and challenges, but also preventive reforms and recommendations based on lessons learned. The Journal also highly encourages submissions that explore the election administration, voter suppression, ballot accessibility, and felony disenfranchisement laws, among others. Additionally, it invites manuscripts that offer prescriptions to reforming the United States election system and various ways to eliminate barriers to voting.

Please submit your one-page abstract proposal to the RBJPA Editor and Guest Editor via e-mail on or before Friday, November 12, 2021. You may also submit your proposal online at https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/rbjpa/ (which requires you to create a profile before submission). Notification of proposal acceptance will be sent out by Friday, November 19, 2021, and completed manuscripts will be mailed out for peer review by Friday, April 7, 2022. The tentative date of publication for accepted manuscripts is October 2022.

• Editor
  Dr. Andrew I. E. Ewoh
  BJ-ML School of Public Affairs
  Texas Southern University
  3100 Cleburne Street
  Houston, Texas 77004
  E-mail: Andrew.Ewoh@tsu.edu

• Guest Editor
  Dr. R. Lucas Williams
  BJ-ML School of Public Affairs
  Texas Southern University
  3100 Cleburne Street
  Houston, Texas 77004
  E-mail: Robert.Williams@tsu.edu