This article first appeared on The Fulcrum

Shouted down as a "spoiler" for three weeks after announcing he was getting ready to run for president as a Libertarian, Justin Amash has abandoned the idea of a third-party candidacy.

The coronavirus pandemic's hindrance on his prospects was the reason offered last weekend by the Republican-turned-independent conservative congressman from Michigan. But many will fairly conclude he was bowing to the withering attacks he received.

Many are aware by now that US Rep. Justin Amash has decided not to run for president -- citing the cumbersome realities the current political system presents to candidates outside the two major parties.

“After much reflection, I’ve concluded that circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate,” said Amash.

However, what got less attention in the mainstream conversation is what Amash said after this.

This article was first published on The Fulcrum

update: A federal appeals court has temporarily put on hold a lower court’s sweeping ruling that would have allowed all Texas voters to qualify to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.

This article first appeared on California Globe

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A June Phase 3 reopening

The re-openings would be contingent on COVID-19 coronavirus transmission rates continuing to either hold steady or fall in the coming weeks. Hospitals would also have to report no increases of stress on staff or supplies.

I was scrolling through social and found a thread that can be summarized as follows:

- Someone posts a political opinion,
- Someone else comments his disagreement and explains why,
- and the original poster comments back saying something like, “I blocked that guy in a heartbeat.”

A few seconds later, this chain of comments is deleted and all that’s left is the original post, its likes and a handful of agreeing comments only.

This article was first published on The Fulcrum

New Jersey piloted a new online voting system for people with disabilities this week, but a lawsuit could stop the state from using it again.

Human rights activists and law school students are challenging the new voting system, arguing it's unfair to expose only one category of voters to significant risk their ballots will get hacked with impunity.

There is one indisputable truth about California’s nonpartisan, top-two open primary: It has completely shaken up the political landscape in the Golden State.

Leading top-two researchers Christian Grose, professor at USC, and Dr. Charles Munger, Jr. of Stanford University, discussed in detail how transformative nonpartisan primaries have been in California during a recent Zoom conference call hosted by Open Primaries and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute. 

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Had “Did Not Vote” been a candidate for president in 2016, they would have won handedly. With 41.3% of the vote, this block of the electorate significantly outpaced those voting for Secretary Clinton(28.5%) or then-candidate Trump (27.3%).

This article first appeared on The Fulcrum

Two prominent voting rights groups are attempting to formally intervene so they can fight a Pennsylvania lawsuit that threatens thousands of names on the voter rolls in that marquee battleground state.

New York state cannot cancel the Democratic presidential primary, according to a ruling by a federal judge on Tuesday after top Democratic leaders tried to remove presidential candidates from the June primary ballot.