The U.S. Presidential election is more than one year away, yet campaigning is well underway. And while election season once signified a ramping up of vitriolic rhetoric aimed at opponents and the other political party, the American public is now exposed to a constant stream of hateful diatribes, mostly thanks to President Trump’s tweets.

NANR's Executive Director interviews two guests this month. First up, John Opdycke, President of Open Primaries, activist and strategist with more than 25 years of experience working in independent, alternative and reform politics. John discusses how the election reform movement is growing and some of its challenges, "politics as usual," and the ongoing efforts of Open Primaries in Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona and more.

A recent L.A. Times Op Ed tucked under the Times’ Politics vertical suggests that an L.A. Times poll indicates that, “Democrats are missing an opportunity to brand Trump as too conservative.”

Why’s that, according to David Lautner, the Times’ Washington Bureau Chief?

Four state Republican Parties -- Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, and South Carolina -- have decided to cancel their presidential primary or caucus for the 2020 election, denying even their own members a choice in the 2020 race.

It is not uncommon for a party to cancel primaries when they have a sitting president running unopposed. Most of the time the incumbent is effectively not challenged.

In a first-of-its-kind poll, FairVote partnered with YouGov to showcase the benefits of ranked choice voting to determine the true preferences of Democratic voters in a crowded 2020 field. Instead of the single-choice method used in traditional polling, this poll allowed likely Democratic voters to rank candidates and issues in order of preference to provide a greater insight into the state of the race and potential paths to victory for certain candidates.