FairVote Blog
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Gender Parity: A Case for Fair Voting and Party Rules
by Patricia Hart // February 28, 2013 //The United States trails behind ninety-one countries for women's representation in its national legislature . Ranking behind most industrialized democracies, women fill a mere eighteen percent of U.S. Congressional seats. Many factors contribute to the level of descriptive representation (representation that reflects the electorate) present in a state's government. Two striking influences on representation are structural and institutional: the electoral system in place and the party rules employed.
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FairVote Agrees: Preserve the Voting Rights Act
by Mollie Hailey // February 27, 2013 //The right to vote is essential for a truly representative democracy, and legislation implemented with widespread support in Congress to enhance this right, such as Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, should be upheld.
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Not Helping America Vote: The Plight of the Un-filled Election Assistance Commission
by Rob Richie, Lizz Hudler // February 26, 2013 //Creating an active EAC is a simple positive step – and one that happens to be the law. Reform should be about systemic, enduring solutions, not just shorter lines. #wehavetofixthat
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The Role of Fair Voting Systems in the Shelby County Case
by Drew Spencer, Rob Richie // February 21, 2013 //On February 27, the U.S. Supreme Court will hold oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, reviewing the constitutionality of Section 5 "preclearance" provisions of the Voting Rights Act. A largely overlooked part of the case is the fact that Section 5 was the reason that Calera, a growing city in Alabama's Shelby County just south of Birmingham, adopted one of the fair voting systems we recommend to uphold voting rights.
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FairVote's Top Three Electoral College Stories of the Week, February 12 to February 19, 2013
by Andrea Levien // February 19, 2013 //Tune in every week for FairVote's favorite news items on the Electoral College and National Popular Vote.
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California and the Limits of Independent Redistricting Commissions with Winner-Take-All
by Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy // February 15, 2013 //Independent redistricting continues to gain attention as the panacea for American congressional elections. But as the independent redistricting's performance in California shows, on its own it cannot resolve the most serious problems with our congressional elections. We need to combine independent redistricting with adoption of fair voting plans.
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Geography as a Failed Unit of Representation: Why Fifty States of Equal Population Is No Solution for Presidential Elections
The idea of electing the president with a creative alternative map of the United States in which every state has equal population has has drawn sympathetic support from Atlantic writer Jim Fallows. But uneven population of states has little to do with what's broken in presidential elections, just as equal population congressional districts leave us with broken U.S. House elections. We must free ourselves from geographic boundaries and go to the real meaning of one-person, one-vote with the National Popular Vote plan for president and fair voting for Congress.
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FairVote's Top Three Electoral College Stories of the Week, February 6 to February 12, 2013
by Andrea Levien // February 12, 2013 //Tune in every week for FairVote's favorite news items on the Electoral College and National Popular Vote.
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Dubious Democracy: Updated FairVote Report Shows Dysfunctional House Elections
by Devin McCarthy // February 11, 2013 //Since 1994, FairVote has released a biannual report on American congressional elections called "Dubious Democracy." FairVote now presents its updated evaluations of the 2012 congressional elections.
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FairVote's Top Three Electoral College Stories of the Week: January 29 to February 5, 2013
by Andrea Levien // February 6, 2013 //Tune in every week for FairVote's favorite news items on the Electoral College and National Popular Vote.