Articles by Caitlin Hurkes

While most of the national media's election coverage is focused on the upcoming 2018 elections, there are many contentious races happening right now. One such race that independents should pay attention to is in Manitou Springs, Colorado, where the mayoral race is heating up. Incumbent independent Mayor Nicole Nicoletta is being challenged by Democrat Ken Jaray. With political party polarization at levels unseen in modern United States history, voters are looking for common-sense, independent-...

A lot of people are working hard to fix our broken system. Problem is, most people don’t know just how many important efforts are making strides because the media doesn’t spend much time talking about them. So we are. Voter disenfranchisement and disillusionment has been on the rise for a number of years, but there is something special about this presidential election season. Maybe it’s the fact that we now have the two most disliked presidential nominees in the history of modern politics. In...

As the 2016 Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday, one aspect was clear: Americans are increasingly looking for alternative candidates outside of the two-party duopoly. According to Google Trends, searches for "3rd party candidate 2016" increased by 1,150 percent over the last week. Interestingly, states with the highest third party candidate searches in the United States were (in order): Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and Michigan. Politico reports t...

Most media news outlets are calling this year’s Pennsylvania Senate race one of the most competitive this election season. Politico ranks incumbent Pat Toomey’s seat (R-PA) as the 5th most likely to see the incumbent defeated in November. Like most elections in the United States, independent candidates don’t get their fair share of airtime and the Pennsylvania Senate race is no different. A Google search of “Pennsylvania Senate race” yields many articles, but most only mention the Republican an...

After the Colorado Legislature failed to pass two bills that would 1) establish a presidential primary and 2) open primary elections to independents, citizens are taking these measures into their own hands. One group, Let Colorado Vote, is working toward placing two initiatives on the November ballot. One initiative would re-institute a presidential primary and open it to unaffiliated voters, and the second initiative would open all remaining statewide primary elections to the state’s 1.3 milli...

In a recent interview with Brad Friedman, published on Salon, Green Party presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein criticizes both parties and their establishment primary rules. "[T]he rules of the game...are made as complicated and incomprehensible as possible in order to keep people in the dark and lock them out. Closed primaries are one piece of a massive system to silence and disempower voters," Stein explains. While Stein says there might be an argument for closed primaries in a multi-party...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzO-JYjEcHE After Hillary Clinton declined to debate Bernie Sanders this week before the June 7 California primary, Donald Trump told Jimmy Kimmel on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live that he would be willing to debate Bernie Sanders, for a price. Trump said since the debate would get such high ratings, he would take that money and give it to charity. Sanders responded shortly after with a tweet, writing: https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/735689625407131648 This ...

Republican Party leaders reportedly started deliberations this week over changes to the way the GOP nominates its presidential candidates. The New York Times reports that after the chaos witnessed this primary season, certain changes seem imminent. One of the most significant reforms being suggested is limiting the participation of independent voters, citing open primaries as the reason Donald Trump is the party's presumptive nominee. Some members of both the Democrat and Republican parties fe...

During the 2016 election, it is estimated that 43 states will use electronic voting machines that are at least 10 years old. In an era where consumers are constantly updating their personal technology, why is it that Americans are voting on machines using Windows 2000? A study released by the Brennan Center for Justice in 2015 explains that most of these machines are perilously close to the end of their lifespan. Outdated voting machines increase the risk of failures and crashes which could lea...