Introducing Our 50-State Playbook

As we approach the 2026 fall midterm elections, we are excited to announce the launch of our 50-State Playbook, an interactive civic tool through which users can identify and track paths to effective reform to fair representation and equal voting power in each state. By ranking each state and analyzing its potential for democratic reform, this 50-State Playbook provides strategic pathways to increase fair representation and voter power in each state. 

Why now?

Partisan and racial gerrymandering, voter laws, and recent court decisions all undermine equal voter power and our ability to fairly elect and be represented by our representatives.

Although this is an issue across the country, partisan and legislative differences in each state require context-specific pathways of reform. What might prove to be an effective solution in one state would not necessarily be effective in another. For example, in states with open primary elections such as Tennessee and Texas (where all voters can vote regardless of formal or informal partisan affiliation), driving nonpartisan turnout in highly-contested low-turnout legislative primary elections can support an increase in fair representation. However, this pathway would not work in states such as New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, which do not hold open primary elections. 

How you can use it

You can use our Playbook to learn more about the specific problems impacting fair representation and equal voting power in each state, and identify opportunities for reform and to engage. Whether you are an advocate, a policymaker, or simply interested in learning more, this playbook can be used to inform strategy for anyone passionate about these issues., whether you are a committed voting rights activist or you are engaging with this issue for the first time.

You can learn more about our work and other civic tools by visiting electoral-lab.org/our-work.