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"Most Americans believe our political system is a public institution that follows a set of detailed, impartial principles, structures and practices derived from the Constitution… It isn’t.” - Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter

Imagine an industry where consumer trust has dropped to marginal levels, but nothing in that industry changed. It’s hard to do, right? Even now in the midst of a pandemic and social turmoil we see businesses commit to doing better to adapt to consumer demands. 

The Georgia elections Tuesday were characterized as “catastrophe.” A new $104 million voting system broke down, many voters couldn’t vote as a result of a ballot shortage, and those who could ended up waiting hours in line to exercise their right to vote.

The unrest spread across the country and even the world with great mass and sometimes terrifying ferocity. Here’s protestors throwing things as far away as Downing Street in London:

https://twitter.com/andrewdoyle_com/status/1268344644200476673

A street cone can be seen sent flying over the fence in a show of contempt.

Here is a tense confrontation between scores of police and protesters in Seattle:

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of most elections in the US, specifically when it comes to protecting the right of voters in the midst of a crisis. However, two reforms have taken center stage in the ongoing conversation on how to provide safe and secure elections going forward: vote at home and ranked choice voting.

Baltimore is a one-party city, so much so that it hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1967. Registered Democrats vastly outnumber any other party registration, having a tenfold advantage over the Republican Party. It's as blue as a city could get.

The consequence of this is November elections are inconsequential. The winner of the closed Democratic mayoral primary, for instance, might as well be sworn in the next day, and he or she can win with a marginal share of the total registered voting population. Voters outside the Democratic Party have no voice in the process.

This article first appeared on The Fulcrum.

DeVore, a Republican state legislator in California from 2004 through 2010, is vice president for national initiatives at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank.

In the midst of social turmoil and civil unrest, on top of an ongoing pandemic, the news didn’t spare much time to talk about 9 primary elections held Tuesday -- primaries that, according to vote at home advocates, prove absentee ballots work.

Four states -- Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- postponed their primary elections to June 2 to allow voters an extended opportunity to request absentee ballots, while DC, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota largely increased their use of absentee ballots as well.

The result?

Neal Simon, the author of Contract to Unite America: Ten Reforms to Reclaim Our Republic, joined T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss the challenges of our current partisan political environment and how to address them.
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Many Mainers, for the first time, have been confronted with what it means to have their right to vote threatened. It’s a deeply unsettling feeling. Which is why editorial boards across the state, including, on April 5, the Maine Sunday Telegram, have called for steps to be taken to ensure broad voter participation and safety.

This article was first published on The Fulcrum.

The League of Women Voters has sued Alabama to ease the rules governing absentee ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Montgomery on Thursday, claims Secretary of State John Merrill did not go far enough in March, when he waived strict excuse requirements for voting absentee — but only for primary runoffs that were then postponed to July 14.