President and CEO
Rob Richie has been the leader of FairVote since co-founding the organization in 1992; he was named president and CEO in 2018. He has played a key role in advancing, winning, and implementing electoral reforms at the local and state levels. Richie has been involved in helping to develop, win, and implement: ranked choice voting in states and more than 20 cities, fair representation voting systems in numerous Voting Rights Act cases, the National Popular Vote plan in 16 states, and voter access proposals like voter preregistration and automatic voter registration.
Richie is a frequent media source and has been a guest on NBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, NPR’s All Things Considered, On the Media, and Freakonomics. His writings have appeared in every major national publication, including the opinion pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post as well as in 11 books, including as co-author of Every Vote Equal, which is about Electoral College reform, and Whose Votes Count, which is about fair representation voting. He has addressed conventions of the American Political Science Association, the National Association of Counties, the National Association of Secretaries of State, and the National Conference of State Legislatures. He is a graduate of Haverford College, where he serves on its Corporation. Richie and his wife Cynthia Terrell are parents of Savanna, Lucas and Rebecca.
Rarely has a policy debate so divided and paralyzed a nation as the issue of “Brexit” in the United Kingdom. In a 2016 national referendum, British voters narrowly approved leaving the European Union. The aftermath and turmoil ever since provides a case study in how such divisions are poorly handled by a plurality, single-choice voting system.
Despite a setback this week, Caflifornia reformers have every reason to be optimistic about expanding RCV. A remarkable coalition effort involving major civil rights groups and thousands of grassroots activists came together to urge California Governor Gavin Newsom to allow general law cities and counties to join charter cities and counties in being able to adopt RCV.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton have all dropped out of the presidential race. Where do their backers go? And what does ranked choice voting have to do with it?
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