Public Square | Electoral College

Our virtual Public Square was a dynamic discussion on the Electoral College. Those who may not have been able to join the conversation live can watch it now and find additional resources below.

November 2024 General Election: How Are Secretaries of State Preparing Nationwide?

50 states are each in charge of their elections. Join the O’Connor Institute and National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) to learn how our nation’s elections officers are preparing for the November 5th election. How are the elected officials in charge of American elections preparing for November?

Citizens Guide to the General Election 2024

This guide provides state-level information on election deadlines, voter registration, which races are on the ballot, and more.

Civics 101: Micro-Lessons for Multigenerational Learners

Whether you never had civics in school or simply want to brush up, Civics 101 is here for you! While we are all encouraged by the increased call for K-12 civics education across the nation, we also do not want to neglect those adults, now out of school, who themselves want to learn more about…

Youth Civics Education Programs

Explore our free educational resources for learners of all ages.

Talking Revolution, with Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

“The Age of Revolutions is a tremendous achievement that will shape scholarly and public debate for decades to come.“– Wall Street Journal There is broad scholarly agreement that our current political world owes much to what Thomas Paine was the first to call the “age of revolutions”—that is, the several late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century decades during…

Civics for Life Quarterly, Volume 2 | Issue 2

Perhaps no extant product of the U.S. Constitution has received more bipartisan animus than the Electoral College. Since 1800 there have been more than 700 proposals introduced in Congress to amend or eliminate the way in which America chooses its presidents. Yet the Electoral College lives on. Why do we have this system? Why does…

New Evidence on Trickle-Down and Trickle-Up Influences in Civic Education and Engagement

Families play a big role in shaping political identities, but the details of how this happens are less clear. The O’Connor Institute’s premier policy brief uses K-12, birth, and voting records for over 580,000 students to investigate this question. The findings are significant and will be of great interest to policymakers, educators, and families.

Civil Discourse

Without civil discourse, a vibrant and productive civil society cannot exist; a representative democracy presupposes that its members can discuss challenging issues with the goal of resolving them.

Civic Engagement

A democracy’s success depends upon active participation by its citizens in civic activities, such as voting, volunteering in community groups, or helping with campaigns or causes important to you.