The first debate in the Kansas race for U.S. Senate was held at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas on Saturday. In the first face-to-face meeting, Republican incumbent Pat Roberts continued his attempts to characterize independent candidate Greg Orman as a liberal Democrat. Orman called into question Roberts' voting record, particularly issues where Roberts sided with Democrats on appropriation bills.

It's the same story that independent candidates face across the country: a battle against a mass of special interest groups, accusations of spoiling the race, and laws tailored to the interests of the two-party duopoly. That's exactly where Maine's independent gubernatorial candidate, Eliot Cutler, currently finds himself.

“I don't take money from special interest PACs or political parties,” Cutler said in an interview for IVN.

The Gaza Strip, an approximately 30-mile long strip of land sandwiched between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea, is the location of one of the most contentious and hotly debated conflicts in recent human history.

The latest iteration of the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict is now entering its third month with little hope of lasting peace, despite attempts by Secretary of State John Kerry and Egyptian President el-Sisi to quell indiscriminate rocket fire on the part of Hamas and to halt civilian causalities as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

Upon landing in the new world the first things settlers did was hold an election. Voting was commonplace, though not uniform. Colonies pursued their own methods, policies, restrictions, and exceptions.

Voting used to be the privilege of America’s white, wealthy, and elite men. The privileged class tried to keep the power of the vote from people of color, the poor, and women since the birth of this nation.

In 1776, only white, male property owners were permitted to vote.