In a probing and preliminary survey conducted by Harper in February 2013, a mere one percent of likely Democratic primary voters declared their preference for Tom Wolf, who had yet to officially announce his candidacy for governor of the Keystone State. A Quinnipiac poll a month later found that a full 85 percent of Pennsylvanians had not heard enough of Tom Wolf to determine whether they viewed him favorably or unfavorably.

As the Edward Snowden interview with Brian Williams concluded, Snowden stated that he is comfortable with his actions of divulging the NSA’s information gathering program. After watching the interview, my thoughts were much the same: I am content with Snowden’s actions.

A March 7 Pew Research article found that 50 percent of Millennials consider themselves independent. When compared to the 39 percent of Gen Xers, 37 percent of Boomers, and 32 percent of Silents who say the same, a trend becomes clear: as generations come and go, the number of independents continues to increase. Will Millennials be the generation to finally end partisanship?

For some, the answer is a definite yes.

California voters went to the polls on Tuesday, June 3, to decide which top two candidates would advance to the general election in several races. Initial results show a promising trend for candidates supporting individual voter rights.

California's nonpartisan, top-two open primary allows all voters and candidates to participate on a single ballot, protecting the right all voters have to equal access to elections. Across the state, candidates who have declared their support for nonpartisan primaries have secured a spot on the November ballot.

The race to represent Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in Congress was crowded, at least for one party. Iowa held statewide primary elections on Tuesday and registered Republicans had a slew of candidates from which to choose, which splintered the vote and prevented a nominee from being crowned. The nominee will be chosen at a convention on June 21.

It is quite well known by now that there is two-party dominance in the United States because of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) -- or plurality -- electoral system. Third parties can have an unintended “spoiler effect” on contests by stealing votes from the ideologically similar -- but more viable -- candidate.

For instance, in Virginia’s 2013 gubernatorial election, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis siphoned nearly 150,000 votes from Republican Ken Cuccinelli’s total, which was enough to give Democrat Terry McAuliffe a 55,000 vote edge, and the governor’s seat.

On Tuesday’s closed primary elections in New Jersey, where unaffiliated voters were locked out of the process, party affiliates turned up in low numbers to elect their candidates. As a result, no surprises emerged from the electoral results.

Here’s the first question: did President Obama break the law when he released 5 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held by the Taliban in Afghanistan? Yep, he did. No question about it. The law very specifically required the president to notify Congress 30 days before releasing detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison. Obama signed the law himself.

He broke the law, and Congress is right to insist that there be consequences for doing so.

In the current political climate, new policy ideas are often stifled in favor of political entrenchment. As a result, candidates rarely challenge the ideas of their party, choosing partisanship over policy innovation. Yet in California, two candidates, one Republican and one Democrat, are challenging the norms of their party and grabbing national headlines doing so.

On Tuesday, Californians across the state will go to the polls to vote. It will be the second time Californians have voted in the state's nonpartisan, top-two open primary since it was passed by 53 percent of voters in 2010. In this system, the top two vote getters in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election to face off.

So who are the California races to watch? Here is the breakdown: