The right to cast a meaningful vote, equal in value to other votes, is a fundamental tenet US elections. Despite the 1964 Supreme Court decision formally establishing the one person, one vote principle as a legal requirement of elections, our democracy consistently falls short of it. With mechanisms including the winner-take-all format in the Electoral College, disproportioned geographic allocation of senators, extreme partisan gerrymandering in the House of Representatives, and first-past-the-post elections, many voters experience severe vote dilution. <br/><br/>In order to legitimize our democratic structures, American elections should be reformed so every person’s vote has equal weight, ensuring that the election outcomes reflect the will of the people. Altering the current election structure to include more proportional structures including rank choice voting and population-based representation, will result in a democracy more compatible with the one person, one vote principle.

This paper conducts an exploration of the election policy reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic within the United States. While living through and voting during the real-time events which took place during the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, it soon became evident that there was not enough experience from earlier election emergencies to properly ensure against voter disenfranchisement. Given the scope of the global pandemic and the speed with which policymakers had to act, there was very little time to properly prepare. There was also great contention regarding the legitimacy of election methods proposed to alleviate in-person election concerns, such as mail-in voting. The political battle between those who believed COVID-19 to be a grave concern against those who did not consider COVID-19 to be a legitimate threat towards their livelihoods also affected policymaking decisions. Policymakers were forced into a corner, as they experienced criticism for not enough government action, as well as disapproval on the actual regulation that came to pass. This paper therefore aims to understand what factors led to the decisions which shaped the election policy which occurred as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic during the election year of 2020. This analysis is conducted by considering the following: prior election emergency policy; the development of reactive election policy in March, proactive policy established for the August and November elections; and a review of voter disenfranchisement which occurred due to COVID-19.

This thesis aims to gain a broader understanding of the perceptions of Jewish identity amongst Jewish adults of three generations. In doing so, I aim to contribute to research and previous scholarly works that have examined how the views and perspectives of those the three different aging ‘tiers’ contribute to furthering cultural perceptions, stereotypes, theories, and ideologies of identity in Judaism. People of different ages possess varying views and understandings of aging and the aging process. Society, too, says different things about aging and how aging plays a role in relationships amongst people. People have certain and often strong views as to what is considered “old” and “aging”. There are societal benchmarks establishing that people of the age of 60, 62, or 65 are considered “seniors” and therefore put in a special box relegated to those of that age. In addition, there are many perceptions of aging and Jewish identity, varying among those with different backgrounds and cultures, experiences, familial relationships, and more. These views and understandings are not singularly applicable. Cultures may have their own unique customs and beliefs, and at the same time many cultures are also influenced by the larger American understanding - these perceptions contribute to many subgroups, including Judaism, and are evidenced in Jewish culture. In this study, I endeavored to survey members of the Jewish community to find out their experiences and perspectives relating to Jewish identity and what it means to them, both in the personal and Jewish cultural context.

There is a lot of literature and research in both the fields of culinary history and ideology studies, but there is little about the two combined. While food and culture are undeniably connected, former literature fails to connect food and thought through direct culinary creations. Therefore by analyzing an ideology’s actors, their diet, food origins, culinary symbolism, history(culinary, political, economic, and social), and physical representation, we can successfully create a recipe that reflects feminism, black liberation and gay liberation.