America is waiting for the drama of the 2020 presidential election to play itself out. Votes are still being counted. Lawsuits have and will continue to be filed. The heated divide between the parties is on full display while US voters desperately want politicians to put the needs of the country ahead of the gain-seeking interests of their parties.

Votes are still being counted in several states across the country. Unlike the year 2000, Florida is not in the spotlight. However, Florida should be highlighted as the state where a proposed state constitutional amendment received 57% of the vote but will not be adopted. 

Amendment 3 proposed the implementation of nonpartisan top-two open primaries to reform the current closed primary system in Florida. A clear majority of Florida voters want to get rid of our closed primaries; yet, since 2006, a supermajority (60%) is required to pass a proposed constitutional amendment. 

This is the first in a two-part series on Gompers Preparatory Academy in Southeastern San Diego. Read the second installment here.

Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in the boardroom when San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education authorized the conversion of Gompers Middle School to an independent charter school.

Dave Gatzke vividly remembers the Friday afternoon he and his husband, Tony, drove up from San Diego to Cedars Sinai, walked into the nursery, and held their son, Ethan, for the first time. Three years later, they were in the delivery room when their daughter Evelyn “Evie” was born. 

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us

The stress of the 2020 election has filtered down to children and adolescents. Many adults are keyed up and concerned about results in either direction. Since we are already reeling from COVID-19 and ongoing concerns about our health and the health of our families, many people do not have any more coping capacity left. Their bandwidth is full.  

Despite an 11-point advantage in the polls ahead of Election Day, the "Yes on 2" campaign to bring ranked choice voting to Massachusetts fell short Tuesday. By the end of election night, 55% of voters turned down the proposal to change how voters cast the ballots in the Commonwealth.

Ranked choice voting would have allowed state voters to rank political candidates in order of preference rather than choosing only one.