The movement to take control of primaries out of the hands of political parties is growing. However, nonpartisan primary systems are only in place in a few states, and the only nonpartisan system in the South, Louisiana’s primary, is being targeted by partisan insiders. Fortunately, a bill that would have closed congressional primaries in the state was just dropped by its sponsor.
We all know the system is broken. It’s rigged. It does not work. How do we know? Because our leaders are not producing solutions to the issues we care about. No one is listening, just talking past each other.
But what if the system is working the way it was designed to work? What if politicians are operating very rationally and logically based on incentives of the political system in place?
Editor's Note: This update originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.
Now that the Census Bureau has finally announced which states have gained or lost congressional seats, attention turns to the legislative bodies and commissions that will be drawing new maps for the next round of elections.
Scot Chisholm, Executive Chairman and Founder, talks to Barbara and Neil about how a pub crawl fundraiser in San Diego turned into
Austin made history over the weekend as it became the first city in Texas to adopt the use of ranked choice voting during a special election on May 1. Nearly 60% of city voters approved its use in future city elections.
Proposition E in Austin allows city voters to rank candidates in order of preference (i.e. Choice 1, Choice 2, Choice 3, etc.) up to 5 candidates in city council and mayoral elections. If no candidate gets 50% of first choice votes, the last place candidate is eliminated and their voters’ second choices are applied to the results.
The ballot initiative process is under attack in Missouri. New laws are making their way through the state legislature that would make it harder -- if not impossible -- for voters to decide for themselves what direction they want their state’s government and elections to take.
Bills that have advanced in the legislature include changes that would:
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.
Iowa is already seeing the effects of the year's first Republican-driven curbs on voting. The state's elections administrator has told 294,000 Iowans they've been targeted for an eventual purge from the registration list — simply because they did not vote last year.
RepresentUs, the nation’s largest anti-corruption organization, released a short video starring comedic actor Ed Helm highlighting the true impact and consequence of partisan gerrymandering. The irony of the video is as funny as it is, it shows just how serious of a problem the partisan scheme is across the country.
Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared in the Rapid City Journal and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author.