Our Impact: 2010 to 2026
CID conducts a range of national and multi-state research initiatives exploring voting behavior, civic engagement, electoral processes and reforms, among other salient participation topics. We are nationally recognized for our pioneering research and data analyses, which have been widely used to inform both public policy and on-the-ground efforts to build a more engaged and representative democracy.
Our research has also focused on nationally relevant election reforms such as vote centers, vote-by-mail, automatic voter registration, online voter registration, the ballot initiative process and money in politics. CID research also tracks geographic shifts and trends in electoral representation, providing up-to-date analyses of the disparate impact of barriers to civic and electoral participation.
Our Center frequently partners with scholars at major universities, including UC Davis, UC San Diego, USC, UC Merced, Fresno State, MIT and Reed College on research examining the diverse electorate, voting methods and trust in elections.
The engagement of young people, communities of color, low-income populations and other historically underrepresented groups have been an important focus of our work. This work involves a multipronged approach that in addition to research, includes education and outreach to policymakers, and support of nonpartisan community engagement organizations.
Recent CID Research
CID research studies are widely used by civic and community leaders, including elected officials, to inform policy development at the legislative level in California and other states.
In 2025 alone, CID released research reports on topics such as shifting party registration demographics; early and in-person voter demographics; registered voters who did not participate in recent elections; and an analysis of voting methods and turnout in the 2024 general election.
Over the past two years, CID also issued a variety of reports examining the changing electorate throughout the country, including topics such as the shifting demographic landscape throughout the states, demographic profiles of 2024 battleground states, an examination of past voter turnout patterns in competitive congressional districts, and the women of color vote.
In 2022, we produced six of the ten official reports that analyzed implementation of the California Voter's Choice Act, the single largest change in how elections are run in California. Commissioned by the California Secretary of State’s office, the reports were widely used by election officials, policymakers and advocacy groups statewide in implementing election changes this year. Our research was also cited in a budget request letter bya group of State Assembly and Senate members to California Governor Newsom on the topic.
CID’s Public Data Tools
In addition to issuing research reports, 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.
Los Angeles County Voter Turnout Tool, Georgia Voter Turnout Tool
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, drop box 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.
Long-Standing Impact
For the past decade and a half, nonpartisan state, regional and community-based groups have used our research to inform their engagement and organizing efforts, as well as their policy advocacy. Stakeholders and policymakers have disseminated and applied many of our research findings and recommendations in a variety of settings throughout California and the U.S.
CID’s Founder and Director Dr. Mindy Romero is recognized as one of the nation’s leading analysts on the electoral process and civic participation. Romero serves on a number of research-related and advisory boards, including the UC Berkeley Goldman School’s Democracy Policy Initiative (DPI). She is also an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).
CID’s Romero is also a sought-after voting and election expert beyond California, and has been invited to share the Center’s research at many high-profile national venues, including the National Commission on Voting Rights, the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, the U.S. Capitol, and Harvard University’s Center for Government and International Studies. Romero was named a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow in 2023.
CID and the Media
Since CID was founded in 2010, Romero and her committed team at CID have contributed significantly to the greater public discourse on critical voting and election issues, aided in large part by extensive media coverage received.
Romero is frequently interviewed by state and national news outlets for stories related to election outcomes, electoral reforms and inclusive civic engagement, and both she and the Center’s research have been featured in thousands of media stories. Since 2020, Dr. Romero has averaged approximately 1,000 media mentions per year as an individual, with the Center’s research often cited in the stories as well.
Romero’s op-ed pieces on civic and electoral participation have regularly been featured in Cal Matters, the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times. CID also engages in alternative types of communications efforts such as Romero’s TEDx Talk on the power of the youth vote.
CID in California and Beyond
Currently based in California, CID frequently partners with policymakers and nonpartisan community groups throughout the state. Over the years, CID has produced a prodigious number of groundbreaking research report and briefs that have been instrumental in informing and empowering policy and nonpartisan organizing efforts statewide, particularly targeting underrepresented voting groups.
Over the last decade, CID’s research has been cited in discussions of more than two dozen legislative bills in the state. CID Director Romero is also frequently called on to testify about electoral issues before the California State Legislature.
While a notable percentage of our research focuses on California, CID also conducts nationally focused research that is frequently used and cited by researchers, policymakers and nonpartisan advocacy groups beyond the Golden State. This includes CID’s 2024 groundbreaking study, The New Electorate: The Strength of the Latino, Black and Asian-American Vote, which examined the changing racial and ethnic shifts in voter registration across the U.S., as well as turnout, persistent participation gaps and opportunities to broaden voter representation.
Going forward, as an independent organization, we will continue producing nonpartisan, data-driven research that informs policy and on-the-ground community organizing through education and outreach, just as we have since 2010. Our mission to improve the social and economic quality of life and advance a more engaged, responsive, and representative democracy through research and outreach are unchanged. We will continue to be a go-to source for electoral and civic engagement leaders and researchers, playing an important role in improving the quality and quantity of publicly available research on civic and political engagement.
Click here to learn more about CID’s expanded work in its new chapter as an independent organization.