History & Milestones
The Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID) is one of the nation's leading nonpartisan research centers focused on elections, voting behaviors and electoral and political participation.
First launched as the California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP) at UC Davis in December 2010, CID was founded by political sociologist Mindy Romero, who through her graduate and doctoral work in sociology saw a great need for more representative data-driven research on participation, voting behaviors and elections. Growing up in the Central Valley of California, Romero saw significant voting disparities among low-income communities and communities of color, further inspiring her research into how big data could be used as a tool to improve both civic and political engagement.
In 2012, the Center released its first data research report, “Disparities in California's Vote-By-Mail Use. Changing Demographic Composition 2002-2012,” which set the stage for dozens more studies and research collaborations over the years. In 2018, the Center moved from UC Davis to the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. It was officially renamed the Center for Inclusive Democracy the following year to better reflect its mission to increase civic and political engagement, as well as serve as an accessible data source and catalyst for change in communities of color and disenfranchisement. Today, policymakers and communities have come to rely on CID’s extensive library of collaborative research and data tools to inform both public policy and to inform civic engagement in communities across the U.S.
In addition to its innovative research reports and educational efforts, CID has developed and currently deploys multiple, publicly accessible web-research tools to directly inform and increase civic and political engagement at the state and community level across the U.S. These web tools include:
Launched in February 2018, this tool was initially developed to help California counties transition from polling places to vote centers. Now county election offices across the U.S. use this interactive web-based mapping to identify specific voting and ballot drop box locations needed to meet local legal requirements and to equitably serve voters within their counties. State-level and community-based groups also use the tool’s population, voter turnout and voting history data indicators to inform their strategic, nonpartisan voter outreach and get-out-the-vote efforts.
The tool was initially made available in ten states before the November 2020 election, and expanded again in 2022. The tool now serves over half the nation’s population in the following states: Colorado, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Hawaii, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Virginia and California. During the 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 election cycles, the tool was used frequently by election officials and community groups for voter outreach purposes as well. See our website for testimonials from leading elections officials and voting advocates across the U.S.
Developed for Los Angeles County and then for the State of Georgia, this tool provided voting advocacy groups, election officials and the general public with unofficial real-time counts of voters who had cast a ballot by mail, dropbox and in-person. The tool was first rolled out in 2020 for Los Angeles County, then subsequently adapted for use during the 2020 special election in Georgia.
CID’s latest tool provides population and voter data for California’s new congressional districts, which were redrawn in 2025 after California voters approved Proposition 50. Nonpartisan advocacy groups, policymakers and the media have used this tool to access relevant voter information pertaining to these newly redrawn districts. In the future, additional political jurisdictions and data may be added to the tool.