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.

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."

Policy Perspectives

  • 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.

  • Legality of the Use of Ranked Choice Absentee Ballots for Military and Overseas Voters

    July 18, 2011

    Ranked choice absentee ballots provide a legal and practical solution to the disenfranchisement of military and overseas voters in runoff elections. These ballots enable U.S. citizens covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 (UOCAVA) to cast votes when the ballot turnaround time between first and second elections is short.

  • California's Proposition 14: Weaknesses and Remedies

    August 5, 2010

    FairVote analyzes the policy and legal ramifications of Proposition 14 (The "Top Two Primaries Act") In California and gives recommendations of ways to roll back some of its worst effects by statute.

Innovative Analyses

  • House Seat Apportionment: Media Gets It Wrong on Partisan Impact

    December 20, 2010

    On Tuesday, December 21, the U.S. Census released the official population numbers for states from its count earlier this year. The most immediate impact will be on apportionment of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In this installment of FairVote's Innovative Analysis series, Rob Richie explains how some pundits and journalists have gotten it wrong in their analysis of the partisan impact of the census numbers.

  • Non-Majority Winners and "Spoilers" in Election 2010

    November 4, 2010

    Election Day brought big changes this year. Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives decisively, while the Democratic Party narrowly held onto the U.S. Senate. With a majority of the nation’s governors being elected, Republicans made key gains. While the media’s narrative will undoubtedly focus on the winners and losers, our Non-Majority Rule desk will zero in on how plurality voting rules skewed and distorted several elections – and led to some underhanded campaign tactics.

  • North Carolina uses Instant Runoff Voting

    November 4, 2010

    This fall North Carolina held the first statewide general election with instant runoff voting (IRV) in the nation’s history to fill federal judge Jim Wynn’s vacancy in on the Court of Appeals. Three Superior Court vacancies were also filled with instant runoff voting.