Needing only 775 more delegates to capture the Republican nomination, Trump has the chance to get almost half way home with the 367, mostly winner-take-all, delegates up for grabs on March 15.

The recent cancellation of a Donald Trump rally in Chicago has re-energized a popular misconception about free speech in our country—namely, we all get to speak without receiving any flak for what we say.

As primary election day approaches in Illinois, one group that is attempting to reform congressional maps is looking to see their agenda become a reality. Independent Map Amendment, the group leading the charge to change the way maps are drawn in Illinois, is using the last few days before the March 15 primary to build on its success.

Many authors and commenters on IVN clearly believe that it is wrong for any party, or any state law, to prevent independent voters from voting in a government-administered primary for public office. I am personally undecided about that issue. It would help me to think clearly about this issue if someone will write an article for IVN that explains the philosophical objections some voters have to being required to join a party before they can vote in its primary for public office.

Correction note: This article originally said that Open Primaries spent $300,000 in support of the donation disclosure initiative. It was the coalition in support of both initiatives. The article has been corrected.

Salon reported Thursday that a campaign to adopt nonpartisan elections in Arizona suspended its efforts after a major donor dropped out.

On Thursday, I was astonished to see someone argue that the gridlock and hopeless partisanship we see in Washington are just phenomenalized by the news, and that our politicians 'really do' work together.

This is, of course, vastly different than what we usually perceive our government to be doing -- between the budget shutdowns, refusal to hear SCOTUS nominations, and the sheer number of  bills dying from lack of cloture -- we have gridlock. But just how bad is it?

On Thursday, March 10, Sherry Bebitch Jeffe and Douglas Jeffe published a column in Reuters about the impact nonpartisan election reforms are having in California, including independent redistricting and the nonpartisan, top-two open primary (authored by the Independent Voter Project). They conclude that while California may appear to be a one-party state, it has actually become a "no party state."

In 1999, President Bill Clinton praised the philosopher John Rawls (1921-2002) – who had just received the National Humanities Medal – for his contributions to liberal political thought. Clinton applauded Rawls for having “placed our rights to liberty and justice upon a strong and brilliant new foundation of reason” and having “helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself.”

March 9th update: Donald Trump finished first in the Michigan primary, where candidates' percentages closely tracked the Monmouth poll -- Trump earning 37% of the Republican primary vote, Ted Cruz 25%, John Kasich 24% and a fading Marco Rubio with 9%. Yet, consistent with Monmouth's head-to-head polling, a CBS News exit survey showed that Cruz would have edged Trump head-to-head.