About Us

MissioN

The Informed Democracy Project’s mission is to promote a more inclusive, representative, and accountable democracy by ensuring all voters have access to easily understandable, accurate, and nonpartisan candidate information. We incubate, develop, and support policy solutions to combat election misinformation and disinformation and to break down the equity barriers to a fully informed electorate.

Ann M. Ravel

Co-founder and
Co-Executive Director

Ann M. Ravel is the Co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Informed Democracy Project. She is one of the leading voices on democracy, campaign finance, and voting reforms in the country. Ravel is the former Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which enforces federal campaign finance law. She was nominated to the FEC by President Barack Obama and received the unanimous confirmation of the United States Senate. Prior to that, she served as Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, following her appointment by Governor Jerry Brown. Ravel previously served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Torts and Consumer Litigation in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice and as County Counsel to Santa Clara County. She has served on a number of boards and commissions relating to law and democracy, including prior service as an elected Governor on the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California, a member of the Judicial Council of the State of California, and Chair of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation.

Nicolas Heidorn

Co-founder and
Co-Executive Director

Nicolas Heidorn is the Co-founder and Co-Executive Director of the Informed Democracy Project. Heidorn has over a decade of experience working in the democracy reform space in California and has participated in drafting or passing many of California’s most impactful reform laws in that time. Prior to co-founding the Informed Democracy Project, he was the Staff Director and Chief Consultant of the California State Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee. Before that, he was the Policy and Legal Director at good government reform nonprofit California Common Cause. As an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law, Heidorn also founded the California Local Redistricting Project at McGeorge; the Project’s influential reports on local redistricting best practices were incorporated into the FAIR MAPS Act (AB 849, Bonta, 2019), the most comprehensive overhaul of California local redistricting law in generations.

Advisory Board

Liva Poulsen

Liva Poulsen

Politician

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Matthew Hunt

Matthew Hunt

Politician

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Eve Knight

Eve Knight

Politician

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