San Diego, Calif.- As we wait for the final ballot count to determine the 77th Assembly district race, there are still about 20,000 votes remaining, Republican incumbent Brian Maienschein, who leads Democrat candidate Sunday Gover by 757 votes, was the recipient of some rare kudos from a Democrat.

AUGUSTA, MAINE - Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap's office announced Monday that the recount in Maine's 2nd Congressional District will begin on Thursday, December 6, and will take approximately 4 weeks.

https://twitter.com/MESecOfState/status/1069659341547032578

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Republican Party of Tennessee has asked state lawmakers to change Tennessee's open primary to a closed one for the first time by requiring voters to register with one of the two parties in order to vote in either of their primaries.

The State Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Tennessee has taken up the issue of closing the Volunteer State's open primaries since as far back as 2010, but overturning this longstanding aspect of Tennessee politics has never found support with a majority of the state GOP's members until now.

Climate change and its causes are politically charged topics with liberals and conservatives often having diametrically opposed opinions. Independent voters and thinkers may not agree with either side as there is an abundance of data, some of which is conflicting.

The 2018 midterms saw the highest turnout in a non-presidential national election since universal suffrage. This historic high stands in stark contrast to the 2014 midterms which saw the lowest turnout since 1946. This begs the question: is this a one-off spike in interest, or a sign of the future trajectory for U.S. elections?

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - Questions are being asked about the term "ballot harvesting" and its impacts on the California election.

Ballot harvesting was used for the first time in November, and has clearly been advantageous to Democrats. This week, a seventh GOP-held congressional seat flipped to the Democrats, leaving Republicans controlling just seven of California’s 53 House districts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. officials familiar with the matter told CNN Wednesday that the U.S. Justice Department is about to announce a federal rules change that would ban so-called "bump stocks" throughout the United States.

An official announcement from the Trump administration is forthcoming within a few days the report says.

“Bringing manufacturing back to America, creating high wage jobs, was one of our campaign promises and themes” Donald Trump proclaimed to a room full of reporters in early 2017, less than one month after being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

In the latest podcast episode of In Full Color, independent author Wes Messamore, IVN Business of Politics Editor Lindsay France, and I discuss the latest development in Maine's 2nd Congressional District, where US Rep. Bruce Poliquin has filed an amended motion to get a new election for his district.

A federal judge is set to hear arguments in the lawsuit on December 4. However, it seems unlikely the judge will order a new election because the congressman is disgruntled over his loss to Democrat Jared Golden. Golden's attorney called Poliquin's lawsuit "sour grapes."

HARRISBURG, PENN. - Dr. Jill Stein won a major legal victory in Pennsylvania as state officials agreed to a settlement in her post-2016 election lawsuit. Gov. Tom Wolf's administration guaranteed voting machines with verifiable paper trails, and agreed to an automatic, robust audit in 2022.

"This is a critical victory for everyone concerned with the integrity of our elections. We congratulate the state of Pennsylvania for raising the bar not only for Pennsylvanians, but for voters everywhere," declared Stein.