Articles by Kaila Cooper

North Carolina may be jumping on the “Top-Two” train. A house bill introduced this week, H.B. 737, would reform the current partisan open primary system to a nonpartisan, top-two primary similar to the systems already in place in California and Washington state. H.B. 737 was introduced by state Reps. Ken Goodman (D-Rockingham) and Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro). It would put all state and congressional elections on a single primary ballot where all voters and candidates, regardless of party aff...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t67ezWp7Zao&feature=youtu.be President Trump has actively utilized executive orders to bypass the unpredictability of Congress. Now, Represent.us has authored an executive order that has Trump’s “drain the swamp” mantra embedded into its very core. Represent.Us explains: “Represent.Us' strategy is to go around Congress and pass anti-corruption laws ourselves. The American Anti-Corruption Executive Order is another way we can go around Congress without getting b...

Historically, Nebraska has long set itself apart from the rest of the country in the way its legislature is elected and functions. One state senator believes it should also be unique in the way it treats third parties and third party candidates in statewide elections. Nebraska’s nonpartisan unicameral system is the only one of its kind in the United States. Nebraska elects state lawmakers using a nonpartisan, top-two system that does not include party affiliation on the ballot, and all legislat...

In one of the birthplaces of American liberty, citizens are rallying for overdue change. Pennsylvania voters have grown dissatisfied with the way state lawmakers have disenfranchised their constituents. Voters collectively feel the polarization and overbearingness of the two-party system. The March on Harrisburg aims to address these concerns by bringing awareness to both the issues themselves and the copious amounts of citizens demanding a change. According to the founder of the organization, ...

The perception in Washington is that if one side is for something, the other side will stand against it. From health care to immigration reform to job creation and more, the partisan establishments on both sides of the aisle could not appear further apart. Yet if there is one issue that the political elite in Washington can agree on it is the expansion of the surveillance state, even at the risk of Americans' privacy. Democrats and Republicans have jointly taken several actions in modern histor...

The North Carolina legislature approved a bill this week that would re-establish partisan elections for superior and district court judges. The bill was first filed on February 14 by Republican state Representatives Justin Burr, Jason Saine, Dana Bumgardner, and Cody Henson. On the national level, the discussion over Supreme Court appointments focuses heavily on the importance of an independent judiciary, appointing associate justices that are not intertwined with the partisan politics of the W...

A bill was recently introduced in Oregon that would reform primary elections in a whole new way. Republican state Representative Knute Buehler, of District 54, is the sponsor of bill HB-3140, also known as the People’s Primary. The People's Primary opens the first stage of the public election process in a way no other state does. Put simply, HB-3140 reforms the current closed primary system by adding a ballot for independent voters. Voters registered with a party can vote in their party's prima...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MzVZE-Mk0U U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican representing the 49th district in California, said he was not going to let the Trump-Russia accusations slide and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself for an independent, special prosector should Trump be charged or suspected of wrongdoing. "You cannot have somebody -- a friend of mine, Jeff Sessions -- who was on the campaign and who was an appointee. You are going to need to use th...

Last week, Utah state Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck introduced legislation that would initiate ranked choice voting (RCV) in her state. According to fairvote.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocate for RCV, “With ranked choice voting, voters can rank as many candidates as they want in order of choice.” This bill could potentially give voters in Utah more choice on their ballot while mandating that over 50% of the vote must be reached for a winner to be named -- an actual majority. The lac...