It’s been said before, what a year! We’ve followed the presidential election, electoral reform, and everything in between.

Below, we've compiled the top articles on IVN from this past year - found using Facebook engagement and article pageviews. Check out the headlines and highlights of each article.

DNC Chair: Superdelegates Exist to Protect Party Leaders from Grassroots Competition

Published February 12th by Truth in Media

Democratic National Committee chair and Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz explained the motive behind the Democratic Party’s appointment of unpledged delegates, also called “superdelegates,” who are former party leaders and elected officials who are allowed to ignore the outcome of primary elections’ popular vote totals and instead vote for the presidential candidate of their personal choice at the party’s nominating convention.

Former DNC Chair Says as Superdelegate He Doesn’t Care What Voters Want

Published March 8th by Thomas A. Hawk

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and former DNC chair, has committed his superdelegate vote to Hillary Clinton, despite U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders winning Vermont 86.1 percent to Hillary Clinton’s 13.6 percent.

@D_Born @BernieSanders Super delegates don't "represent people" I'm not elected by anyone. I'll do what I think is right for the country

— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) March 5, 2016

...Superdelegates are not tethered to the votes in their state or the will of the people. They are not elected to be superdelegates. Superdelegates are chosen from among Democratic leaders at the state and national level.

Millions of CA Voters Unaware They Don’t Have a Say in Presidential Primaries

Published on March 15th by Shawn M. Griffiths

Redding.com columnist Rocky Slaughter wrote back in February that 5,000 voters in Shasta County may not be able to vote in California’s June Republican and Democratic primary elections. Additionally, many of them may not even know that they are completely barred from participating in either primary.

...In 2014, IVN reported on the voter education campaign, Don’t be AIPrl_Fooled, which argued that hundreds of thousands of voters in California have registered with the American Independent Party (AIP) by mistake, likely thinking that they were registering independent or with an Independent Party.

Gary Johnson Just Broke the Internet

Published on July 28th by Thomas A. Hawk

As the Democratic Party wraps up their convention, Gary Johnson posted on Facebook, encouraging his supporters to demand that he be included in the debates:

Hillary will call Donald an egomaniac. Donald will call Hillary crooked.

Neither one will debate about the issues that matter to the American people.

SIGN THE PETITION to demand Gov. Gary Johnson be included in the Presidential Debates

Within less than one minute, thousands of “likes,” “shares,” and petition signers were sending his post viral. So many, in fact, that according to campaign insiders, NationBuilder, the world’s most innovative campaign platform, couldn’t handle the traffic.

A sign that Americans are ready to consider a third option? Probably.

Proof that Gary Johnson should be let into the debates? Absolutely.

Oral Argument Granted for Lawsuit Against Debate Commission

Published on October 6th by Independent Voter Project

The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the FEC for not properly regulating the Commission on Presidential Debates. The court set a hearing date Wednesday for January 7, 2017, just under two weeks before the next president will be sworn into office.

Level the Playing Field and its CEO, Peter Ackerman, originally filed the lawsuit in June 2015. The suit charges that the CPD and its directors have violated federal election law that requires debate sponsors to be “nonpartisan” and use “objective criteria” to determine which candidates will appear on the presidential debate stage.

Gary Johnson and Jill Stein Showed Us All What a Presidential Debate Should Look Like

Published on November 5th by Courtney Pittam

Third party candidates Gov. Gary Johnson and Dr. Jill Stein took part in a candidate forum that aired on PBS over two nights. There were no interruptions, no personal jabs, and candidates spoke only to the questions and issues. The candidates’ podiums stood next to each other. They were given about 90 seconds to answer each question, and both Johnson and Stein appeared committed to a real discussion on real issues.

... Presidential debates and forums should serve one purpose: educating voters about these candidate and where they stand on the biggest issues facing the nation, so voters can make an informed choice at the ballot box.

The Majority Has Spoken (Again and Again): It’s Time To End The Electoral College

Published November 7th by Lisa Scott

Poll after poll, for quite some time, has shown that most Americans would like to replace the Electoral College delegate system with the popular vote – one person, one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. Gallup has asked the question since 1944, and a majority has always supported an end to the Electoral College, ranging from 80 percent in 1968 to 63 percent in 2013. And not surprisingly, 70 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds are anxious to end the undemocratic practice of voting for electors who, in turn, vote for the president.

...Clearly, the Electoral College is irrelevant, undemocratic and potentially dangerous. Never used anywhere else, before or since, this delegate system has no place in a 21st century representative democracy.

Joe Biden: Racists Didn’t Elect Donald Trump

Published on November 22 by Thomas A. Hawk

Vice President Joe Biden in his trademark level of candor spoke...on why the Democratic Party lost the 2016 presidential election. While much of the focus in the mainstream media has been on “white nationalists,” Biden said it wasn’t racists who won Trump the presidency, but voters the Democratic Party had long overlooked — namely rural, working-class Americans.

“We lost because of awful lot of hard-working Americans who live in areas where we did not pay much attention to,” he said at a reception celebrating a Hindu festival. “Barack Obama won these people. They are not racist. They did not vote for the Democrats this time.”