I knew when I decided to come to Washington, D.C. to study law at George Washington University that my focus was going to be on public interest. Unfortunately, that’s a broad category that can mean anything from FDIC financial compliance to fighting a Ugandan bill imposing the death penalty for homosexuality and almost everything in between. We live in an imperfect society and while I’m not the kind of person who would say that the world is bad necessarily, there are so many things that could be better--that should be better.

Public interest in my view can take one of two paths – helping people navigate a broken system or trying to make the system better. Policy work does the latter and that, I think, is the challenge.

FairVote was on the list of employers that were scheduled to come to a couple GW Law career events blog posts. Coming from Oklahoma, anything outside of a winner-take-all system carried some weight with me. I’m trying to avoid any trite “saving the world” phrases but I really think that as much as good public policy is about making the world better, that has to start with electoral reform.
and when I saw them on the list I was immediately interested, so I did some research online and fell in love instantly. My knowledge of alternative voting methods had been limited mostly to quick discussions here and there in political science classes or

Better representation leads to better policy. A governing body that is chosen by an engaged electorate has more legitimacy and is more able to be responsive. The best way to encourage engagement in the political process is by minimizing the number of wasted votes and maximizing competition.

 I’m looking forward to my summer at FairVote. I’m excited to use my research and writing skills to contribute to the team. I’m hoping that working at FairVote will give me an idea of what working on policy looks like, especially from a legal perspective. I am absolutely thrilled to be working with people who share a passion for solving the systemic problems that face our society.


John Werner is a student at George Washington School of Law and a 2015 Legal Intern at FairVote. Do you want to apply for a FairVote internship? Find more information here: http://www.fairvote.org/who-we-are/internships-and-employment/internships/