Content Categorized with "Reforms"
1 - 10 of 38 results
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Help FairVote MN's Ranked Choice Voting Video Win Thousands of Dollars For Fairer Elections!
- Posted: May 15, 2013
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting in Bay Area Elections, Instant Runoff Voting, Home, Reforms
Today is the last day to show your support for ranked choice voting and FairVote Minnesota in the Looking@Democracy contest. Vote now!
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Takoma Park Promotes the Vote: Will More Cities, Campuses and Organizations Take Action?
- Posted: April 16, 2013
- Author(s): Rob Richie
- Categories: Reforms, Felon Disenfranchisement, Voting Rights
Last night, the Takoma Park city council passed a charter amendment on first reading that, if approved when before the council again in the coming month, will be in the best tradition of cities and states leading the nation in advancing voting rights. It would establish same-day voter registration and extend voting rights to residents after they turn 16 and after incarceration. Here's why we think it's important.
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Getting a Real “Colbert Bump” for Women’s Representation Takes Fair Voting Systems and Better Party Rules
- Posted: March 29, 2013
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Patricia Hart
- Categories: The Fair Voting Solution for U.S. House Elections, Reforms
After voters in South Carolina rejected four women running as Democratic Party nominees in the 2012 congressional elections, the state in a special election this May again has a chance elect its first female House members since 1990. The likely continuation of an all-male delegation provides lessons for what it will take to achieve gender parity in Congress: a combination of gender-conscious party rules and fair voting methods.
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The Voting Rights Act, Jerome Gray and Fair Voting in Alabama
- Posted: March 8, 2013
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Home, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Voting Rights, Cumulative Voting, FairVote
Among news coverage surrounding the upcoming landmark Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which will decide the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Jerome Gray has received partiuclar attention.. Gray has had a remarkable career as a community organizer, including helping to make sure fair voting systems were effective for African American voters.
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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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Arizona Defeats Top Two Primary: What's Next for Reformers?
- Posted: November 9, 2012
- Author(s): Drew Spencer
- Categories: Home, Reforms, FairVote
As the nation eagerly followed the incoming results of the Presidential election on Tuesday, we at FairVote also kept a keen eye on the results of a handful of electoral reform ballot measures, including Arizona's vote on Proposition 121, the Top Two primary law. We were concerned about the impact that this proposed form of Top Two might have in Arizona. But Prop 121's defeat became apparent early in the evening, with over two-thirds of Arizona voting against it.
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Pledge to Stand with Voters: A New FairVote Initiative
- Posted: November 8, 2012
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Lizz Hudler
- Categories: Home, Reforms, Right to Vote Amendment, FairVote
With our pledge to Stand with Voters FairVote asserts that it's time to fight for democratic principle over partisan politicking. Promoting and protecting our representative democracy is far more important than seeking short-term advantage in electoral rules.
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Electing Lords: A Unique Opportunity for Electoral Reform in the British Upper House
- Posted: July 31, 2012
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Home, Europe, Reforms, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Elections Worldwide
A lordship, by its very definition, has historically not been an elected office. But there is a strong movement in the British House of Commons to transform the upper house of the British parliament, the House of Lords, into a largely elected body based on proportional representation. This reform is long overdue.
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Look to Election Rules to Reverse Decline of Political Center
- Posted: May 11, 2012
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin, Rob Richie
- Categories: Research & Analysis, Instant Runoff Voting, Home, Reforms, Congressional Elections, FairVote
U.S. Senators Dick Lugar (R-IN), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Kent Conrad (R-ND) share a history of bipartisan policymaking -- and the reality that they are leaving Congress. With its "the-rules-matter" perspective, FairVote explores the way in which our winner-take-all voting system disadvantages centrist candidates and discourages bipartisanship.
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Snowe-ball Effect: How the Loss of Yet another Congressional Moderate Makes the Case for Election Reform
- Posted: April 25, 2012
- Author(s): Sheahan Virgin
- Categories: Research & Analysis, Instant Runoff Voting, Home, Reforms, Congressional Elections
The stunning decision by Olympia Snowe to retire is just the latest example in an alarming series of setbacks for the political center, which is vital to a functioning democracy. What is clear, is that we are living through a period of severe polarization and partisanship, which has had adverse effects on the ranks of moderate politicians. FairVote's unique analysis connects the political center's travails to our damaging winner-take-all election rules and discusses the way in which alternative voting systems could boost moderates like Snowe.