It appears that the momentum toward non-affiliated voter registration in Oregon is not letting up. In fact, it appears to be accelerating.

Latest statistics from the Oregon secretary of state’s office show nearly a 60% growth from December 2010 to May 2017. What’s interesting is the growth of independents from 2015 to 2017, from 527,302 to 739,405 (over 200,000 new registrations).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMH21Uw8KUA&feature=youtu.be

Video Credit: Equal.Vote

One oft-overlooked, yet critical point of discussion in the voting method debate is how actually accurate various methods are in terms of representing the will of the electorate. This video uses the magic of computer graphics to show visually how various systems perform in terms of representative accuracy.

Considered the largest breach of voter data in history, a firm working for the RNC left databases containing the personal information of more than 198 million voters exposed on an unsecure Amazon cloud server.

Birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers and voter registration belonging to nearly 200 million people registered to vote in the U.S.

Chris Vickery, a cyber risk analyst for UpGuard, discovered the breach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXD9mN4EI8

Update 6/19/17: The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to issue a stay in Gill v. Whitford. This means until the justices rule on the case itself, the current electoral maps will stay in place.

 

The Supreme Court will decide if a lower federal court was right to find that Wisconsin's state Assembly maps violated the constitution on the basis of a partisan gerrymander.

While the Germans appear to be completely oblivious to the fact, they are viewed as the ultimate rival to the British. This is shown in not only sporting and political rivalries, but also is embedded in culture for historical reasons and the connection of the countries. The Royal family, for example, is basically German after all!

Germany, on the other hand, is much more preoccupied with its rivalry with the Dutch to notice Britain in this way. While this ‘competition’ for the most part is a light-hearted affair, it does make it a surprise to learn about a new trend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTmWCYj-mlE

Oliver Stone was interviewed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his latest documentary, The Putin Interviews. Major highlights from this interview include comments on the media's role in the Russia narrative, the "fractured Left," his opposition to Hillary Clinton, and the "Deep State's" agenda in the Russia/Trump investigation.

Check it out.

Pennsylvania is the latest battleground over the issue of partisan gerrymandering.

Several plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging congressional maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly that are "so bizarrely engineered that the only fair inference is that the Republican mapmakers made them so for partisan advantage."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqc1ekCwmXw

Our democracy is fundamentally broken by a dangerous new era of fierce partisan divisions. Most voters are locked in congressional districts that are increasingly skewed toward one party.

With no power to affect outcomes, too many votes simply do not matter.

The problem goes beyond gerrymandering, redistricting, and money. The problem is districting itself.