Research & Analysis

From international elections analysis to creative thinking about local voting systems, FairVote for years has written widely and substantively about important democracy topics and done groundbreaking research.

Understanding that reform solutions only come after successfully defining problems, FairVote pursues innovative but objective research into local, state, federal and international elections to demonstrate and explain flaws in America's electoral rules and how to reform them. Recent examples include Presidential Elections Inequality, which lays out in convincing detail the basis for the shrinking number of presidential swing states and its negative impact on voter participation, racial fairness and accountability, as well as a series of related reports that address such questions as the unlikely frequency of the need for national recounts in national popular vote elections and flaws with other state-based Electoral College reform proposals. We also have produced: a report on a range of ways the parties could improve their presidential nomination processes by party rule; a bi-annual report on how runoff and primary elections affect voter turnout; congressional election analyses that provide state-by-state details on lack of competition and fair representation over the past 14 House elections; and an exhaustive review of preparation (and lack thereof) on ballot design and prevention of long voting lines in hundreds of counties during the 2008 elections.

Research Reports analyze American and international elections and election practices, studying the effect on voter participation, fairness in representation and competitive choice.

Policy Perspectives provide elected officials, reform advocates and the media with analyses of elections and electoral reform issues at every level of government.

Democracy Innovations introduce new ideas and strategies to advance our vision of "the way democracy will be."

Research Reports

  • Fixing Top Two in California

    June 18, 2013

    In 2010, California adopted the "Top Two" primary system. In this Policy Perspective, we outline some of the issues with how Top Two operated in California in 2012. We then describe how the system would operate under a simple modification: a "Top Four" system in which four candidates advance to the general election instead of two, and in which the general election is conducted by ranked choice voting.

  • Following the Money: Campaign Donations and Spending in the 2012 Presidential Race

    February 13, 2013

    As we’ve shown at FairVote in study after study, the great majority of people and states are ignored during the election for our country’s highest office. But in the 2012 election, every state was invested at least in one way – they all had residents who donated to and financed the two major party candidates’ campaigns. However, when it came down to the stretch run, the candidates did not reciprocate this national effort.  Instead, candidates concentrated their efforts in a small number of states and left the others as net exporters campaign contributions relative to campaign spending. This report takes a state-by-state look at the data.

  • Presidential Elections State-by-State: Hardening Partisanship

    February 5, 2013

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Policy Perspectives

  • Following the Money: Campaign Donations and Spending in the 2012 Presidential Race

    February 13, 2013

    As we’ve shown at FairVote in study after study, the great majority of people and states are ignored during the election for our country’s highest office. But in the 2012 election, every state was invested at least in one way – they all had residents who donated to and financed the two major party candidates’ campaigns. However, when it came down to the stretch run, the candidates did not reciprocate this national effort.  Instead, candidates concentrated their efforts in a small number of states and left the others as net exporters campaign contributions relative to campaign spending. This report takes a state-by-state look at the data.

  • Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: A History and Analysis of Relevant Supreme Court Cases

    September 23, 2011

     

    This report traces the history of the Voting Rights Act, from its origins in 1965 through its opposition and its continued renewal. Specifically, the report details how Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires those states covered under Section 5 to preclear all proposed voting changes, including redistricting efforts, with the Department of Justice before their enactment. The advent of the Voting Rights Act, specifically Section 5, has been instrumental in preventing states from making changes which could potentially discriminate against racial and ethnic minorities. Throughout the history of Section 5 cases before the Supreme Court, the Court has yet to rule Section 5 is invalid.

     

  • Fuzzy Math: Wrong Way Reforms for Allocating Electoral College Votes

    September 16, 2011

    This updated analysis (first published in 2007) analyzes two of the three major options available to state leaders interested in reforming how a state allocates its Electoral College votes: the whole number proportional system and congressional district system. It evaluates them on the basis of whether they promote majority rule, make elections more nationally competitive, reduce incentives for partisan machinations and make all votes count equally. Our analysis reveals that both of these methods fail to meet our criteria and fall far short of the National Popular Vote plan, which is the third major option available to reformers.

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Innovative Analyses

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