Articles by David Meyers

With two post-census election cycles in the books, congressional district maps are mostly set for the remainder of the decade – which means we will know the outcomes of the vast majority of House elections before voters even cast ballots in November 2026, 2028 and 2030....

For the eighth consecutive year, the United States has been rated a “flawed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and analysis business owned by the publisher of The Economist....

Starting in August, voters in a handful of states will have the opportunity to change how their governments operate by determining the outcome of ballot initiatives....

Editor's Note: This article originally published on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. Four years ago, when the nation headed to the polls in the middle of Donald Trump’s divisive term as president, half of eligible voters cast a ballot. Last week, preliminary data shows overall turnout was down a few percentage points. But some states saw an increase in voter participation. According to preliminary data collected by the U.S. Election Project, three...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ In 2020, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated more than $400 million to state and local governments to boost election administration funding. Since then, more than a dozen states, nearly all controlled by Republicans, have passed laws banning such private contributions. The funds, which were administered by a pair of nonprofit...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Millennials and members of Generation Z have little faith in any level of government, and nearly half of young Black people do not feel like full citizens of the United States, according to new survey data. Just one-quarter of adults ages 18-36 said they trust the federal government, including just 19 percent of Black people, with slightly more saying they tru...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished in its entirety on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ President Biden gave Ukraine top billing and said fighting inflation is the “top priority” during his State of the Union address Tuesday. But he also spoke at length about building a unity agenda and — very briefly — called for passage of election reform legislation. Three years ago, House Democrats first introduced the For the People Act, givin...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Alternative voting systems have been making inroads across the country in recent years but suffered a setback Monday when the Tennessee General Assembly passed a ban on ranked-choice voting. Assuming Gov. Bill Lee signs the bill into law, this will end a saga that began in 2008 when the people of Memphis voted to use RCV for city elections but had yet to use it...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ There’s some good news in the latest version of an annual study of government corruption: The United States didn’t become more corrupt for the first time in five years. However, the U.S. ranking dropped while many countries showed improvement over the past year. The anti-corruption organization Transparency International studies perceived corruption based on mo...