This is my post-election column where I analyze the impact of independent voters who came out in force last Tuesday, almost 34 million of us. Huge. The stats and takeaways are at the end of this column, dear reader, so if you prefer to cut to that chase, scroll on down.

The odd thing about the recount underway in Broward County, Florida, is that there's nothing odd about it.

With ballots still being counted over a week since the polls closed, this is the second election year boondoggle in a row for the county that encompasses FL-23, the Florida U.S. Congressional district of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), and for its elections supervisor, Brenda Snipes, who publicly endorsed and even campaigned with Wasserman Schultz for her reelection this year.

The California Republican Party isn’t salvageable at this time. The Grand Old Party is dead – partly because it has failed to separate itself from today’s toxic, national brand of Republican politics.

Painful though it was, that was the message I delivered at the California Priorities Summit, sponsored by the Sacramento Bee in Sacramento last week.

IVN Author Wes Messamore and I discuss breaking news out of Maine in the latest podcast episode of In Full Color. US Rep. Bruce Poliquin filed a lawsuit Tuesday to stop ranked choice voting tabulation as he finds his political career in jeopardy.

Assemblyman Jim Cooper is passionate about keeping Californians safe. It's a message he made clear to me at the Independent Voter Project (IVP) conference in Hawaii.

Blanca Rubio and her sister Susan have made history.

The two are now the first sisters to serve in the California legislature concurrently.

Blanca represents the 48th Assembly district, her sister Susan, just elected State Senator, will serve Senate district 22.

AUGUSTA, MAINE - US Rep. Bruce Poliquin filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday to stop ranked choice voting in Maine's 2nd Congressional District. The suit, filed against Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, is seeking an injunction to stop vote tabulation in what would be the first US House race in history to be decided by ranked choice voting.

Political debate online is all too often far too cancerous to be of any good to anybody, including most of all, the fully grown adults who are probably very nice, normal, intelligent, and rational people in their daily offline lives, but bring the online discussion down to the level of intellectual rigor and emotional effusion of a toddler.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The first thing that comes to mind when we see a burning building, people suffering, a community ravaged by disaster is not whether or not we are looking at Republicans or Democrats; conservatives or liberals. We see neighbors. We see families in need. We see fellow Americans.