A third of Maine’s electorate will have an opportunity for meaningful participation in taxpayer-funded elections. Governor Janet Mills allowed a bill to go into law Monday that creates a semi-open primary system that gives independent voters a say in the state's primaries.

“When we encourage and allow more voters to participate in our elections, we all benefit,” said state Senator Chloe Maxmin (D-Lincoln), who sponsored the legislation. “Voters have been asking for semi-open primaries for years, and I’m thrilled that we have been able to make it happen.”

Michael Maxsenti, co-host of the podcast Front and Center with Steve and Michael and an advisor to the new Common Sense Party of California, joins host T.J.

In most of the country independent voters, despite their growing numbers, are marginalized by closed partisan primary systems in which the winners are virtually pre-determined in low turnout primaries -- before independent voters can weigh in. 

Not so in California, where a decade-old non-partisan primary system lets all voters, including independents, vote in an open primary that advances the top two vote getters to the General Election, regardless of party.

What does it mean to be an independent voter in America? Do media outlets and the parties fail to understand independent voters? And, where do independent voters stand as we look ahead to the 2024 presidential election? IndependentVoting.org (Independent Voting) is conducting an online survey to shed light on these questions and more.

A new survey from the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation (PPC) shows that most Americans favor using ranked choice voting in federal elections with three or more candidates. According to the results, 61% said they favor the alternative voting method’s use, including 73% of Democrats and 55% of independents. Republicans surveyed were divided, with 49% in favor and 50% opposed.

Gabe Fleisher, the founder of Wake Up to Politics, joins host T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to talk about delivering political news in a meaningful and unbiased way. Mr.

Aaron Hamlin is the co-founder and executive director of The Center for Election Science, a nonprofit that is probably best known as a champion of an alternative voting method called Approval Votin

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.

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Millennials and members of Generation Z have little faith in any level of government, and nearly half of young Black people do not feel like full citizens of the United States, according to new survey data.

Editor's Note: The pieces below feature two sides to the debate on term limits from Jonathan Simpson and Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson. These perspectives originally published on Divided We Fall and have been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.

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A bill that would roll back momentum behind ranked choice voting (RCV) in California was stopped in committee Wednesday. If approved, the legislation would have banned the alternative voting method’s use statewide, including in jurisdictions that use it for local elections.