Summer 2026 Fellows Spotlight

This summer, we have been honored to host four summer fellows: two civic policy fellows, and two civic technology fellows. Asides from working on developing our two upcoming civic tools Vote Maximizer and 50-State Playbook, they have been working on independent projects which they presented on at our recent Summer Symposium on July 30.

Ochuwa Garuba

Ochuwa is a Policy Research Fellow at the Electoral Innovation Lab. At EIL, she is working on an independent project that combines a quantitative and qualitative analysis to understand the future implications of the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey, passed in July 2026. California was the first state in the US to enact its own Voting Rights Act in 2002. Ochuwa is doing a predictive analysis based on municipal descriptive representation data available in California to forecast how the new law may impact local descriptive representation outcomes in New Jersey, the newest state to enact its own Voting Rights Act.

Shawn Lu

Shawn’s independent project examines whether Asian Americans are more likely than other racial and ethnic groups to remain unaffiliated with a political party and how primary election rules shape minority political representation. Because closed primary systems require party affiliation, Asian Americans, who may be less likely to register with a political party due to immigrant experiences and political socialization, may be disproportionately excluded from participation, especially in states such as New Jersey where primary elections are closed.