FairVote Blog
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Romney vs. Romney
by Sheahan Virgin // February 8, 2012 // 0 commentsThe majority of media attention is (rightly so) on the current race between Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum, but it's also interesting and informative to compare Romney to another candidate: himself, circa 2008.
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Rule Breaker: The Florida Republican Primary, Winner-Take-All Allocation, and the Undoing of American Democracy
by Sheahan Virgin // February 2, 2012 // 0 commentsWhen it comes to presidential elections, Florida has a penchant for controversy. The latest example comes via the 2012 GOP nomination battle: the Sunshine State has caused waves by violating RNC rules barring the use of winner-take-all allocation of delegates in pre-April contests. Winner-take-all is a highly undemocratic, broken system that marginalizes voters and shortchanges the primary process, and the GOP must prevent other states from following Florida's example.
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Presidential Tracker: New Evidence of our Shrinking Battleground
President Obama's travel patterns over the past months have been leaning toward battleground and fundraising states. How does the whole of 2011 shape up? We summarize the past year and look at what is to come as the 2012 presidential election year comes into full swing.
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The Supply Side: Alternative Reform Approaches to Campaign Finance
Last Saturday marked the two-year anniversary of the controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Citizens United overturned decades of campaign finance law by extending First Amendment protection to political expenditures by corporations and unions. Most reformers focus on how to affect the supply of money in politics, whereas FairVote focuses on electoral reforms that will reduce the demand for money in politics by reducing the impact of money.
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South Carolina voters better enjoy it while it lasts
With the South Carolina primary just around the corner on Saturday, the preferences of South Carolina voters are of intense interest to the nation -and of course to the candidates swarming the states. Events, polls, debates and the media are all focused on South Carolina voters. But after Saturday? Forget it.
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RCV for the GOP: Mitt Romney, Fractured Conservatives, and the Importance of Rules in Determining Election Outcomes
by Sheahan Virgin // January 20, 2012 // 0 commentsSome conservatives wonder how Mitt Romney has become the favorite for the nomination in a Republican party moving rightward. Others embrace Romney. One problem for believers of both views is the plurality voting rule that means winners don't have to secure a majority. Plurality voting arguably has been negative for all parties involved in the nomination race—whether Romney or his more conservative challengers. The solution, FairVote argues, lies in the adoption of an alternative framework: ranked choice voting.
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South Carolina Primary: One Candidate May Easily Win All Delegates
South Carolina's primary is on the horizon. Though the state has not played by the rules - and has been penalized by the Republican National Committee - the primary promises to be an exciting one. South Carolina's system of delegate allocation may potentially award all of the state's delegates, as well as a much-needed upswing in momentum, to the winning candidate as the race continues on toward Florida.
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FairVote Tracks GOP Primaries: Understanding Proportional Representation in NH
by FairVote // January 12, 2012 // 0 commentsThe New Hampshire GOP allocates its delegates proportionally. How exactly do they allocate their delegates? And, how do different methods change the results?
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The Role of Proportional Representation in the New Hampshire Primary
Today New Hampshire will hold its primary. New Hampshire's 12 delegates are up for grabs. These delegates will be allocated proportionately, and not by a winner-take-all system of allocation.
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Democracy Lost: the Iowa Caucus, the New Hampshire Primary, and the Shortchanging of American Presidential Politics
by Sheahan Virgin // January 10, 2012 // 1 commentsAlthough balloting in the 2012 Republican nomination battle has just begun, the race already appears to be over after just two contests: Iowa and New Hampshire. Such a result, in which the vast majority of the nation's voters are reduced to irrelevancy by an abbreviated primary process, is the newest chapter in a disturbing narrative of democratic ideals lost. Unlike most commentators, FairVote examines the preeminence of Iowa and New Hampshire with a critical eye, asking why two states with a combined 1.4% of the national population should possess a stranglehold on American presidential politics.