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Vote Hemp, a major grassroots hemp advocacy group, on Thursday announced the introduction of complementary bills in the U.S. House and Senate, S. 134 and H.R. 525, titled the " Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015," with support on both sides of the political aisle. The Act would remove federal restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis. “With bi-partisan support in the Senate and House, we are eager to see 2015 be the year Congress

On Thursday, January 15, oral arguments were made before the California State Appeals Court in San Francisco in the case Rubin v. Bowen. Third parties continue to challenge the nonpartisan, top-two open primary in the state, claiming that the system violates the association rights of political parties and disenfranchises third-party voters in the general election. Richard Winger, who runs the site Ballot-Access.org, wrote a post on the oral arguments, implying that third parties were poorly re

In wake of recent high-profile police shootings, President Obama announced a $263 million proposal for the funding of body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies across the country. The concept of using video recording devices in law enforcement is a very old idea. As early as the 1960s, departments toyed with the idea of installing cameras in squad cars, which at that time took up the entire front passenger area and half of the trunk for battery cells. Video technology has come a long way

Money and power go hand in hand in the current discussion over the state of politics in America. A 2014 study by the California Public Interest Research Group, CALPIRG, found a relatively small number of large donors made up over half of spending in California's 2014 nonpartisan, top-two open primary election. According to CALPIRG, 67 percent of all campaign contributions in the 2014 California primaries came from large donors -- those who contributed more than $1,000. Just 864 individuals spen

Illinois' 12th Congressional District has been one of the more closely watched races in the 2014 midterm elections. While each race is different, the contest between Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Enyart and Republican challenger Mike Bost may be decided by the claims made in each candidate's ads about his opponent. However, the depiction of each respective candidate may leave voters with a picture that is less than whole. "Meltdown Mike," as Bost has become known, exploded in anger over last-minute

No matter what political ideology a voter identifies with, every single election comes down to one thing: voter turnout. If voters don't go to the polls to cast ballots, their party affiliation, or lack thereof, doesn't matter. But which states have the worst turnouts and why?According to Nonprofit Vote, a group that works with nonprofit organizations to increase voting opportunities, in 2010, there were about 91 million votes cast across the country, which means that approximately 42 percent o

It seems almost crazy to bring up an Aesop's fable in a series about the Founding Father's legacy to America -- but the fable of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse really exemplifies many of the problems the Founders faced when drafting a Constitution that served the whole United States, not just one aspect, demographic, or region. Examining this can give us very good insight into the modern political dilemma, and shows us that the Founders faced the same voting issues that the parties scanda

The 2014 midterm elections are less than a month away and the GOP is poised to seize a majority in the Senate, though that would require winning some close races. Some are expected to come down to just a proportionally small amount of votes. RealClearPolitics rates 10 Senate races as “toss-ups” and 7 of them involve Democratic incumbents. The difference between victory and defeat will come down to voter turnout, which in turn depends on voter access laws, which state governments have been keen

In the 2014 election cycle, Victoria Jackson and Scott Lively launched campaigns for public office in their respective states, Tennessee and Massachusetts, as independent candidates. Jackson ran for a seat on the Williamson County Commission but lost by a wide margin to the incumbent earlier this month. Scott Lively had more success. Recently, he officially qualified to appear on the ballot for Massachusetts governor.The problem is that Jackson and Lively are singled out by the Southern Poverty

One of the fundamental laws of psephology (the study of elections) is Duverger’s Law. This “law” affirms that in single-member districts, where the winner is whoever wins the most votes (plurality voting), the system will produce two major parties. The presence of third parties naturally encourages strategic voting, in which a voter will not choose his or her favorite candidate in order to avoid a “worse” outcome, such as the victory of his or her least preferred candidate. Though this law has