Entries Categorized with "Congressional Elections"
- 26 of 26 results
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When Barack Obama Was a Leader in Seeking Fair Voting Systems
- Posted: December 20, 2012
- Author(s): Drew Spencer, Rob Richie
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, FairVote
President Barack Obama has a lot on his mind these days, but the state of our democracy remains critical. Fortunately, judging by Obama's record in the Illinois Senate --where he was the prime sponsor of legislation to advance cumulative voting and instant runoff voting - we haven't had a president as informed about good ideas for taking on electoral reform since James Madison and the founding generation.
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It’s Not Just Gerrymandering: Fixing House Elections Demands End of Winner-Take-All Rules
- Posted: December 16, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Redistricting
This year's elections put a spotlight on the troubled nature of how we elect the House of Representatives, the alleged "people's house." But some of our smartest election experts don't seem to understand the root of the problems with House elections.
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“Incumbency Bumps": Measuring National Partisan Swings By Evaluating the Incumbent Advantage in U.S. House Races, 1996-2012
- Posted: December 4, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections
FairVote introduces its updated "incumbency bump" data for the 2012 election. Incumbents once again received a substantial advantage over challengers this year, although that bump was the lowest it has been since FairVote first began analyzing incumbency in 1996.
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A Representative Congress: Enhancing African American Voting Rights in the South with Choice Voting
- Posted: November 27, 2012
- Author(s): Drew Spencer, Rob Richie
- Categories: Home, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Redistricting, Voting Rights, FairVote
In southern states, racially polarized elections remain an active part of political life. Since 1965, the Voting Rights Act has guaranteed that African Americans in the South cannot be shut out of elections either through direct barriers to voting or through discriminatory districts that prevent the achievement of representation. However, relying on winner-take-all elections has inherent limitations. In the belt of southern states including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the use of districting to achieve a fairer level of representation for African Americans has hit a ceiling. To push through that ceiling and achieve truly fair representation, FairVote recommends abandoning the single-member district in favor of super districts elected by choice voting.
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Clashing Mandates and the Role of Voting Structures
- Posted: November 20, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie
- Categories: Congressional Elections, FairVote
President Barack Obama won the presidential election by more than four million votes and 129 electoral votes, but Mitt Romney has carried a large majority of U.S. House districts and a majority of House seats are held by Republicans representing a district where Obama was defeated. Those facts point to tensions in the months ahead--and to the value of rethinking our voting rules to ensure a level playing field for all.
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The 2012 Elections and the Vanishing Congressional Moderate
- Posted: November 15, 2012
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation
Many observers of the American political process have bemoaned our increasingly partisan Congress, with representatives from both parties clinging to the party line and refusing to compromise with the other side. If you were hoping that the 2012 elections would help this problem, here's some bad news: things are only getting worse. The congressional moderate is on the verge of extinction.
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FairVote's Unique Methodology Shows That 52% of Voters Wanted a Democratic House
- Posted: November 13, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation
Using its unique methods for analyzing the underlying preferences of voters, FairVote has determined that the Republican Party has a significant structural advantage in U.S. House elections. That advantage was the most important reason why the GOP kept a comfortable majority of 54% of seats in the House despite Democratic candidates having an overall 4% advantage in voter preference over their Republican opponents.
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Gains for Women in Senate Help Make Our Case for Representation 2020
- Posted: November 8, 2012
- Author(s): Patricia Hart
- Categories: Congressional Elections, FairVote
Refusing to sit idly by and let the boys have all the fun, women played a lead role in the 2012 presidential election as a key voting bloc. And as candidates, women etched their names into political history with a diverse field of contenders, winning several significant congressional races and achieving many firsts.
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2012 Election Night Congressional Scorecard
- Posted: November 6, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections
Predict the winner of the national congressional vote on election night using district partisanship data from early returns!
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Nine House Races to Watch (and Five You Don’t Have To) on Election Night
- Posted: November 3, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Congressional Elections
These are the races that prominent election forecasters might get wrong by underestimating the importance of district partisanship in determining the outcome of congressional elections. See what FairVote's partisanship-based analysis predicts.