Entries Categorized with "FairVote"

- 10 of 76 results

  • PR Proposal For California: Interview with Michael Latner

    Prof. Michael S. Latner recently published a paper this year on proportional representation in California. He summarized the importance of replacing winner-take-all with a fair voting system:  "This speaks to the question of genuine reform versus sort of superficial reform. If we had moderate Republicans elected from the most populous areas of the state and more moderate Democrats coming from central valley and the mountain regions, then you would see a genuine change in the partisan composition of the legislature; because they would be representing people who right now aren’t being represented in the legislature.  It would be more genuine reform."

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  • Why Approval Voting is Unworkable in Contested Elections

    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.

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  • Voting Rights Constitutional Amendment Gathers Steam

     

    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.  

     

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  • Lower Presidential Election Turnout in Safe Republican States

    Thirteen states have voted for Republicans in every presidential election since 1980: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. This track record makes them the most consistently safe Republican strongholds in modern presidential politics. In 1988, these states’ turnout barely trailed that of the rest of the country, by 2.56%. But in every election since, these 13 states have fallen further behind. In 2008, their turnout was 6.22% behind the rest of the nation. 

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  • Rossello v. United States and the Right to Vote for Puerto Rico

    Brought in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights  by former governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rossello, Rossello v. United States addresses the lack of a right to cast a ballot and have such ballots counted in national elections for president and Congress by residents of Puerto Rico. Petitioner Rossello has been disenfranchised, along with all other residents of Puerto Rico, despite his American citizenship,  based solely on his area of residence within the United States. The case raises larger issues about voting rights for Americans who live in American "colonies" that are not states.

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  • Obama’s Field Team: Swing State Power

    President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign is already well underway. His early hires are the latest evidence of the negative effects of current state rules governing the Electoral College which force candidates to focus on a dwindling number of swing states -- and point to the value of adoption of the National Popular Vote plan for president.

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  • The Constitutional Right to Vote Blog: Rock the Blog!

     “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.” While the language of the 26th amendment is intended to serve young people well, it still leaves open a loophole in Constitutional law- while young people cannot be discriminated against based on their age, they can be denied the chance to vote, or have their ability to vote abridged, for reasons that can also undercut voting rights for older citizens. 

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  • Internet Voting 2.0 and Other Advances in Election Technology in Takoma Park

    An innovation in Internet voting seems to address problems with voter anonymity and privacy, but the potential for manipulation and subterfuge by hackers remains the fiberglass ceiling of online voting.

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  • The Right to Vote Blog: Put more money into politics?

    “Let’s put more money into politics!” is a rallying cry that won’t win over too many supporters.

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  • The End of the Election Assisstance Commission?

    The future of the Election Assistance Commission, an independent bipartisan government agency tasked with making elections fair and accessible, is in question. Amid the intense debate in Washington over government spending, this small agency could be terminated, some of its tasks being relegated to the Federal Elections Commission, in order to save the taxpayers $14 million a year. In the United State House of Representatives, H.R. 672, a bill introduced by Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), seeks to terminate the EAC. The bill has made it through the Committee on House Administration along party lines, and will now move to the House for a vote. 

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