Caught in the middle of San Diego’s most recent political scandal is Ravneet “Ravi” Singh, the owner of ElectionMall Inc., who is being charged with funneling over $500,000 in illegal foreign money to San Diego candidates.

Ravi Singh has become a familiar face at political events, working on digital strategies for political campaigns throughout the nation.

His largest client has been, and remains to be, the California Republican Party (CRP), who hired him in 2012 to host their first “Social Media Training Workshop” at the party’s state convention.

In quiet acknowledgement of the ongoing problems with both their mail system and absentee voting, the defense department announced last month that a revamp was underway to ensure that absentee voting materials reached service members and could be returned to their home states as quickly and accurately as possible.

In January 2014, the Independent Voter Project (IVP) withdrew an initiative for the general election ballot that would have required California to conduct nonpartisan elections for its presidential primary. IVP is the same organization that authored California's current nonpartisan "top-two" primary system, which already applies to elections conducted for congressional and state offices.

Last year, former Newark Mayor Cory Booker was elected to the United States Senate following a special election that pitted the Twitter superstar -- among the most recognizable politicians in the state -- against ultra-conservative Republican Steve Lonegan. It was a polarizing race, and though most considered the competition to be a near-guaranteed win for the Democrats, the Republican nominee came closer to victory than any other GOP candidate in recent memory.
Unyielding efforts are being made in the Oklahoma State Senate to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes for adults age 21 and older. Senator Connie Johnson has introduced Senate Bill 2116 which, if successful, would legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana similar to alcohol in her republic.

“By taxing and regulating marijuana we can take the lucrative market out of the hands of criminals and drug cartels and put it in the hands of tax-paying, law-abiding businesses,” Johnson declared.

For the increasing number of unaffiliated voters, choosing between a Republican and Democratic candidate may feel like a competition between the lesser of two evils.
In today’s world of impersonal politics, where elected officials are largely out of reach and social media is viewed as an effective substitute for in-person contact, it is easy to reminisce about the bygone era of retail politics. The days when candidates would literally stand on tree stumps to address crowds of curious voters has become a nostalgic, if not obsolete, image in American culture.