Entries from 2011
- 110 of 128 results
-
No More Gerrymanders: Transforming Maine into One At-Large Super District
- Posted: August 23, 2011
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin, Super Districts
- Categories: Home, The Fair Voting Solution for U.S. House Elections, Redistricting
Lawmakers in Maine are fiercely debating how to redraw the boundaries of the state's two U.S. congressional districts in the wake of the 2010 Census. Both political parties seek new maps favorable to their candidates, a process that could affect not only the current 2-0 Democratic U.S. House majority, but possibly also an Electoral College vote at the presidential level. FairVote has produced an alternative "super district" map designed for election with a proportional voting system. Our plan upholds U.S. Supreme Court rulings on apportionment while guaranteeing competitive voter choice and fairer representation.
-
Update: Lebanon Discusses Adopting Proportional Representation
- Posted: August 22, 2011
- Author(s): Arab Spring Series, Yasmeen Gholmieh
- Categories: Home, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Middle East and Africa, Elections Worldwide
The Arab Spring movement has influenced Lebanon differently than many of its neighbors. Unlike nations like Syria and Yemen, there aren't street protests. Rather, the turmoil in the country is within the Parliament, not the people themselves.
-
Options for States Seeking Section 5 Preclearance
- Posted: August 3, 2011
- Author(s): Lesley O'Connor
- Categories: Home, Redistricting
Every ten years, after U.S. Census data is released, each state across the country must redraw electoral districts. One state with a history of controversial redistricting plans is Texas. This month, Gov. Rick Perry signed into law the state's new congressional redistricting maps.
-
Mitigating the Pernicious Effects of Gerrymandering in North Carolina: The Super-District Alternative
- Posted: July 29, 2011
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Jais Mehaji, Super Districts
- Categories: Home
North Carolina lawmakers have approved one of the nation’s most extreme partisan gerrymanders this year. Four of the state’s seven Democratic incumbents are clearly targeted for defeat. The new map reduces the number of the state’s 13 congressional districts carried by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race from eight to only three, with the remaining 10 district all ones where John McCain won at least 55% of the vote. But FairVote's proportional voting plan in super districts would create a level playing field for people of all parties and races.
-
Dawning Digital Democracy
- Posted: August 12, 2011
- Author(s): Krist Novoselic
- Categories: Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation
If we see the new forms of association as a movement itself, then we are at the beginning of that rare moment of change.
-
Evolution of voting rights from 1789 to today must continue
- Posted: August 14, 2011
- Author(s): Right to Vote Blog, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment
Often we sanctify the Founding Fathers and the Constitution that is the bedrock of our republic. But when it comes to voting rights, most of the founders were far off the mark from how we see the right to vote today. Consider the realities of the election of 1789, the first election of the new Congress. The overall number of people who were allowed to, and actually voted, was miniscule in state after state.
-
Why Approval Voting is Unworkable in Contested Elections
- Posted: July 30, 2011
- Author(s): The Non-Majority Rule Desk
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, FairVote
Approval voting is a method of voting to elect single winners that has adherents among some voting theorists, but it is unworkable in contested elections in which voters have a stake in the outcome. Once aware of how approval voting works, strategic voters will always earn a significant advantage over less informed voters. This problem with strategic voting far outweighs any other factor when evaluating the potential use of approval voting in governmental elections - and is also true of range voting, score voting, the Borda Count and Bucklin voting.
-
Voting Rights Constitutional Amendment Gathers Steam
- Posted: July 22, 2011
- Author(s): Right to Vote Blog, Rob Richie, Jo McKeegan
- Categories: Home, Right to Vote Amendment, FairVote
Nothing is more fundamental to democracy that a fully protected right to vote. That’s why it belongs in the U.S. Constitution.
That's why we so pleased to share good news. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. has introduced HJR 28, the Right to Vote amendment. If you want to support HJR 28, you can take action today. Without such a right specifically enumerated in our Constitution, our fundamental voting rights are at risk.
-
South Carolina: The Super District Alternative
- Posted: July 22, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Super Districts
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Redistricting, Cumulative Voting
Redistricting ensures that political district lines reflect population changes in the U.S. Census every ten years so that each district has the same number of voters per seat in a district. South Carolina is in the midst of redistricting and, as with most states, it’s become complicated and increasingly controversial and partisan. As explained in our recent post on Michigan, FairVote proposes an alternative to the winner-take-all system that has plagued the redistricting process, and opened it up to gerrymandering, partisan bickering, and opportunism.
-
California: A Simulated Attempt at Super-Districts
- Posted: July 22, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Super Districts
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation
Michael S. Latner and Kyle Roach from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo have written a thoughtful article on adopting proportional representation in California, based on a simulation-type analysis.
Their simulation deals with use of a proportional voting system to elect California’s 80 seat Assembly , echoing many of the points we have been making in our series of analyses of the value of the potential use of proportional voting in congressional elections in states such as Michigan and Louisiana.