Voter turnout in city council elections in Ferguson (MO) increased, and its elected representation is more reflective of its citizenry. But it's not time to celebrate. Executive director Rob Richie analyzes this story as part of disturbing trend in local voter turnout.  

The ninth annual Voting and Elections Summit was held on February 5th and 6th. FairVote was pleased to cosponsor this year’s conference, and helped arrange speakers, hold workshops and organize one of the major plenary sessions. The event showcased a great array of speakers/presenters, and produced lively, informative discussions. Here is an overview of the various sessions/workshops, with links to videos of key segments.

The results from the 2014 midterm elections are in. How did women candidates for the U.S. House do? Monopoly Politics 2014 projected the outcomes for 132 of the 162 women candidates for the U.S. House. Of those projections, at least 99% were correct. Find out what the midterm results mean for gender parity in elected offices, and why our projections matter.

With the 2014 midterm elections almost upon us, FairVote takes time out to compare several pundits' forecasts of the US House results with our own Monopoly Politics projections.  In doing so, we demonstrate the endemic lack of competition for US House seats.

The 2014 midterm elections are upon us. How will women candidates fair? Using Monopoly Politics 2014 projections, we find that the U.S. House will not move much closer to gender parity in 2014. If this election is indicative of a trend (and it seems to be), Representation 2020 reforms offer a faster path to gender parity.

At the end of an unusual election campaign, New Zealand's Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP) electoral system has delivered Kiwis a strong mandate for the current government, with the first time a single party has  won a majority of seats  since the nation replaced  U.S.-style plurality voting elections with MMP in 1993. The election also demonstrated many of the advantages that such fair representation voting systems have over the single-member plurality systems so often used in American elections. 

Many consider women's success this week in Massachusetts primaries to be a big step toward gender parity. A closer look at Massachusetts reveals there is still a long way to go. Representation 2020's reforms present opportunities.

Our latest analysis on the proportion of women in the the nation's top 100 cities reveals dramatic disparity. Women are underrepresented in the large majority of U.S. cities. Women are, however, more likely to be represented in city councils that use citywide elections, as opposed to single member districts, to elect at least some of their city council members.

Having tentatively thrust off their military dictatorship, Myanmar actively debates adopting Proportional Representation for its legislature. (Photo Credit: Htoo Tay Zar, Wikicommons)

In July, the city of Santa Barbara became the most recent in a string of California cities being sued under the California Voting Rights Act for diluting the votes of their Latino population. By electing candidates at-large with fair voting, Santa Barbara could remedy any alleged vote dilution in a race neutral way, avoid the pitfalls of redistricting, and encourage the equitable election of women.