California Common Cause partnered with the ArtCenter College of Design for the Designing Democracy course. In the 14-week course, students from varied design disciplines created products, systems and services to address real-world challenges in American voting and elections. Kathay Feng and Sylvia Moore of California Common Cause, along with other experts and coalition partners, provided historical, legislative and research background for the students to design a democracy where:

• Everyone participates and all voices are represented
• Media reflects all voices fairly
• Everyone can run for office and there is a level playing for political participation
• There is transparency in governing
• Money does not determine outcomes
• Voting is easy

The final projects represented promising and exciting innovations in how we vote that we hope can be used outside the classroom. To read more about their final projects and the work that went into developing them, visit the Designmatters website on Designing Democracy.