Articles by Rob Richie

Imagine it’s election night 2024. A few close swing states will decide the presidency – and test the health of our democracy. In that scenario, we can be certain of two facts: Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will win a majority of the vote, and votes for independent and third-party candidates wil...

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished with permission from the publisher. ‍ For those seeking better elections and a more representative government in the United States, the coming year is a time of great promise and peril. We have a historic opportunity to advance comprehensive electoral reform, yet have much to lose if we fall short. I’ve led FairVote since it launched in 1992, grounded in a vision of lifting up structural reform nationally ...

The biggest overlooked story from this election is how reformers made history, once again. From Virginia to California, voters sent a message that they want less hyper-partisanship, greater voter choice and better representation. To celebrate our accomplishments and dive deep into how we move forward in the coming years, we’re hosting a two-day December Spotlight on Friday, December 11, and Saturday, December 12. The Zoom event will feature workshops, briefings, and group discussions, hosted ...

Richie is president and Daley a senior fellow at FairVote, a nonpartisan electoral reform group that promotes ranked-choice voting. This month Daley published "Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy" (Liveright). So much has changed in American life, and so quickly, that it's hard to believe it's been just four weeks since former Vice President Joe Biden shocked Sen. Bernie Sanders with a rout on Super Tuesday. A race that had been unsettled for months, seemingly bound for...

WASHINGTON, DC - The sweeping electoral reform measures encompassed in H.R. 1 expanded even further with the addition of a ranked choice voting clause. Backers of the bill recently added language proposed by U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md) who represents the district that includes FairVote’s national offices. The common sense change to the bill aims to help states and cities run ranked choice voting elections all the more efficiently by requiring funding for new voting systems to make use of RCV-...

Louisiana held a special election for secretary of state in December, since no candidate got over 50% of the vote on Election Day. Yet, despite the fact that over 50% of registered voters turned out in the November election, only 17% turned out in December. FairVote Executive Director Rob Richie submitted a letter to the letter to The Advocate recently, explaining how in a society that desires instant results -- "from Instant Pots to Instagram" -- we don't get that in states like Louisiana, "wh...

Louisiana held a special election for secretary of state in December, since no candidate got over 50% of the vote on Election Day. Yet, despite the fact that over 50% of registered voters turned out in the November election, only 17% turned out in December. FairVote Executive Director Rob Richie submitted a letter to the letter to The Advocate recently, explaining how in a society that desires instant results -- "from Instant Pots to Instagram" -- we don't get that in states like Louisiana, "wh...

Amid all the divisive ugliness inside the Beltway, here is some good news: 2018 may well be the best year in a half century for election reform. Today’s narrative laments a crumbling democracy, alienated voters, and a political culture spiraling ever downward. While true, that narrative is incomplete. It misses the remarkable energy building across many states to confront these problems, shore up our democracy, and rebuild our political culture. Nowhere is that energy more apparent than in the...

The following blog is based on a new FairVote report on ranked choice voting elections in 2018In the first half of 2018, nearly half a million voters ranked their choices in elections for the most important offices in their communities. Voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico elected their first full-time mayor, voters in San Francisco elected their mayor in a hotly-contested special, and voters in Maine ranked their choices in state and congressional primary elections – and then convincingly upheld rank...