With a new year comes a new legislative session in state houses around the U.S. 2016 has seen state legislators nationwide use this opportunity to empower voters by introducing bills that create new uses of ranked choice voting (RCV) at the state and local levels. Just one month into this year’s session, at least 27 pro-RCV bills have been introduced in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

If success in the debates means anything, then John Kasich ought to have an incredibly strong showing in the New Hampshire primary.

Historically, especially in the 19th century, debates were essential to the process--like the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates--and often could catapult an unknown to the front of the line.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used her entire closing statement at the January 17 Democratic presidential debate to highlight the lead-poisoning crisis in Flint, Michigan’s water supply, a racially-tinged health and public policy disaster that the Democratic front-runner casts as an urgent catastrophe requiring immediate attention.

Political commentators believe that Tuesday's primary contest in New Hampshire is a make-or-break moment for Donald Trump. Lacking a traditional ground game in Iowa, Trump failed to morph his popularity in the polls to actual votes, and that could very well happen again in the Granite State.

A panel of federal judges ruled Friday that North Carolina lawmakers used racial gerrymandering to draw at least two of the state's thirteen congressional districts. According to The News & Observer, the order from the three judges bars elections in the 1st and 12th congressional districts, leaving many to wonder about the March primary.

From The News & Observer:

Carly Fiorina and her supporters raised a fuss over her recent debate snub in New Hampshire. The dissatisfaction of her followers inspired the #LetCarlyDebate hashtag, making the case that their candidate was being cheated out of an opportunity for her voice to be heard.

The drive for reforming the drawing of congressional maps has gained a supporter who is hoping to ride a reformist challenge against a long-time incumbent.

Independent Maps seeks to get its initiative on the 2016 state ballot to create an independent redistricting commission in Illinois to determine congressional district boundaries. For years, politicians have drawn the lines. In a state such as Illinois, it can even be done without input from the opposition party.

Undoubtedly, there has been a growing movement in America for the past several decades -- that those successful in business should take the helm as our nation's leaders.

H. Ross Perot made the first modern nationwide appeal for this in 1992, claiming that only someone with business prowess could solve our nation's economic problems.

Was he, and others like him, right?

Anyone who has ever supported a third-party presidential candidate in an election has likely had to defend their decision from partisans who endorse the lesser-of-two-evils voter theory. By the logic offered by proponents of the theory, anyone who votes for an independent candidate is at best wasting their vote, and at worst handing the election over to their least-favorite major-party candidate.

The primary season has begun. The field of candidates is dwindling faster now than it has over the past year. There have been numerous televised debates, town halls, campaign rallies, and news stories.

We have heard countless questions from moderators and from voters themselves. But in all this time, there has been one question that I have not heard asked that should be asked of every candidate that is running: How do they plan to govern with the other side?