Austin made history over the weekend as it became the first city in Texas to adopt the use of ranked choice voting during a special election on May 1. Nearly 60% of city voters approved its use in future city elections.

Proposition E in Austin allows city voters to rank candidates in order of preference (i.e. Choice 1, Choice 2, Choice 3, etc.) up to 5 candidates in city council and mayoral elections. If no candidate gets 50% of first choice votes, the last place candidate is eliminated and their voters’ second choices are applied to the results.

The ballot initiative process is under attack in Missouri. New laws are making their way through the state legislature that would make it harder -- if not impossible -- for voters to decide for themselves what direction they want their state’s government and elections to take.

Bills that have advanced in the legislature include changes that would: 

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

Iowa is already seeing the effects of the year's first Republican-driven curbs on voting. The state's elections administrator has told 294,000 Iowans they've been targeted for an eventual purge from the registration list — simply because they did not vote last year.

RepresentUs, the nation’s largest anti-corruption organization, released a short video starring comedic actor Ed Helm highlighting the true impact and consequence of partisan gerrymandering. The irony of the video is as funny as it is, it shows just how serious of a problem the partisan scheme is across the country.