The best argument for voting ‘no’ in Tuesday’s California gubernatorial recall election is that voters are denied real choice in who would replace the governor. Clearly the ‘replacement candidate’ field — despite having 46 candidates - is not broadly representative of the electorate for a variety of reasons.   This could be rectified by holding the replacement election on a later date, only if the recall succeeded. That would remove the current disincentive for strong candidates to run from th...

With S1 going to markup before the U.S. Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, May 11, the inherent hypocrisy behind HR1/S1 - the ‘For the People Act’ must be called out. But it won't happen as part of the public hearing process, because there won’t be any one present that will raise it. From the Democratic Party side, the Rules Committee hearing is expected to focus on responding to concerns from election officials about requirements and timelines related to HR1/S1’s mandates for early voting, vo...

U.S. democracy is in existential crisis. The country already suffers from unrepresentative winner-take-all, single-seat-district legislative elections, a two-party duopoly, partisan gerrymandering, the corrupting influence of big money in politics, and an Electoral College and US Senate that give vastly outsized influence to some voters over others. In the case of the Electoral College, it can also prevent the presidential candidate receiving the most votes from being elected. But now even w...

Looking at our recent polarized presidential elections — and even the politicization of wearing masks (to combat COVID-19) — it’s easy to say that the partisan divide in our country has never been greater. This shouldn’t be surprising, given that our single-seat, winner-take-all electoral system generally divides us into two large electorally-viable camps. If you and I are in different camps, I succeed by your camp’s failure and you by mine. Anyone who doesn’t identify with this internecine co-...

Looking at our recent polarized presidential elections — and even the politicization of wearing masks (to combat COVID-19) — it’s easy to say that the partisan divide in our country has never been greater. ...