In our first episode of the new season of Peer-to-Peer, we speak with Sarah Birch and Jeff Fischer to learn more about the effect of wildfires on elections in California. The conversation is based on an International IDEA case study that focuses on the impact of wildfires on the 2016 and 2018 electoral cycles but also on the steps taken by election administrators to protecting elections.
Búsqueda
Region
Country
Type
Like other natural disasters, wildfires can have sudden calamitous impacts on communities, destroying buildings, damaging infrastructure and displacing populations. In this chapter we examine the Californian wildfires occurring from September 2015 to November 2018 to assess their effect on two electoral cycles in the state (2016 and 2018), and to study how electoral practitioners cope with these challenges in a developed democratic setting.
The number of democracies in the Americas remains the same as two years ago despite the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, most of the democracies in the region demonstrated great resilience in the face of the pandemic. Parliaments, the judiciary and the media of most democracies in the region managed to adapt and continue to exercise their control functions, even in the midst of numerous restrictions that hampered their work.
Over the past 25 years, I have lived in countries struggling to realize democracy. From Cambodia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to the southern Caucasus, I have worked with committed democrats to design credible election systems, build independent institutions, develop effective checks and oversight, and create inclusive and competent representative bodies.