Every year US politics become more vicious and grim. We have reached a crisis point, and it is worth examining what kinds of behaviors and rhetoric our existing institutions encourage. Under our current electoral system the most oppressive, anti-democratic forces can acquire positions of extreme power in our country. Fortunately, there is a solution.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) was on the ballot in three cities last night, and it won in all three.

Today is Election Day in much of the country, including city elections, statewide ballot measures and gubernatorial and state legislative elections in Virginia and New Jersey. If you have an opportunity to vote, please consider doing so -- our representative democracy starts with all of us. It’s been a busy fall at FairVote - and an historic one for ranked choice voting. Here are highlights

It’s an age-old question: If you vote early for a candidate who drops out before election day, does your vote still count? It depends on the election system you use.

Senator Michael Bennet and Representative Dean Phillips just reintroduced the Voter Choice Act in Congress, with Senator Angus King as a co-sponsor. The bill empowers communities with the option to reform their own elections by providing funding and technical support to state and local governments that want to switch to ranked choice voting (RCV).

In the last few years, more and more cities have started to experiment with ranked choice voting in their municipal elections. This November, there will be a historic number of cities using RCV for their elections -- from mayor to city council to school board. In Utah alone this year, 23 cities chose to opt-in to an RCV pilot program.

In this month’s St. Petersburg municipal elections, Boris Vishnevsky, a member of the liberal Yabloko party, faced a shocking challenge: two other candidates changed their names to Boris Vishevsky in order to confuse voters and split the vote to prevent the original Vishnevsky’s victory.

Canada’s electoral system of single-member parliamentary districts that are won with a simple plurality of votes has repeatedly failed Canadian voters, denying them fair representation at the federal level.

Many factors likely influence how a voter uses their rankings in a ranked choice voting (RCV) election. As of 2021, the median portion of voters who choose to use multiple rankings on their ballot is 68%. In this post we briefly discuss two factors that affect rank usage: voters’ perceptions of candidate strength and a candidate or party messaging encouraging or discouraging use of rankings.

We are on the precipice of one of the worst redistricting bloodbaths in American history. Today the U.S. Census Bureau released data to let states draw Congressional and legislative maps that will shape politics for the next decade. States across the country - right, left, and center - are getting ready to gerrymander.