For a state that claims to lead the nation in voter rights, California’s presidential primary rules are a study in hypocrisy.

The Independent Voter Project continues to foster conversations and exchanges with the Politic Deli podcast. Dan Howle continues his heralded public service career with honest and open conversations with policy makers past and present. Politic Deli provides a bridge to the partisan communication gap by re-establishing civil exchange.

Open Primaries hosted a virtual discussion with civil rights leader, businessman, educator, and author Dr. Benjamin Chavis, who recently was appointed co-chair of the No Labels, a group that has attempted to bring together Republicans and Democrats under shared principles.

Voters added or expanded the use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in two US cities in the same week this month:  Redondo Beach, California, and Burlington, Vermont. 

An overwhelming majority of Redondo Beach citizens voted to add their city to the 6 California cities already using RCV (Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Palm Desert, San Francisco, and San Leandro) and Eureka, which will use RCV for the first time in 2024. 

Notable Republican and Democratic leaders in Rhode Island have come together to change how the state conducts its primary elections. The effort, called the People’s Primary, seeks to bring more competition and participation in state elections.

The 2022 midterm elections were the least competitive, and most partisan in modern history, according to new findings from the nonpartisan group, FairVote. As a result, the "People's House" isn't actually representative of the American people at all.

Update: A Senate bill to implement semi-open primaries passed the Senate in a bipartisan vote on Monday, February 20. Senate Bill 73 would allow unaffiliated voters to choose between a party ballot in taxpayer-funded primary elections. The bill now goes to the state House for consideration.