Search query: pennsylvania
6 Legislative Efforts to Protect YOUR Right to Vote
The biggest story happening right now nationwide that is not getting any attention from the mainstream media are the campaigns, ballot proposals, signature drives, and legislative efforts going on RIGHT NOW to give voters an election system that protects their right to a meaningful and equal vote in the taxpayer-funded election process -- from the primary to the general election.
I’ve covered 10 of the biggest reform organizations to watch in 2020, whose mission it is to give voters a better el
28 May, 2019
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12 min read
2020 and Beyond: The View from County Road T
For the last several years, I’ve been spending time in rural Wisconsin in a small farmhouse set on 130 heavily-wooded acres on County Road T, Polk County. This is the northwestern Wisconsin of hardscrabble dairy farming, bitter winters and luminous springs.
I’ve come here because my companion — a Minnesota-born outdoorsman of Swedish extraction who lived much of his adult life in Alaska and wears a thin fleece jacket in the cold while I layer up in Canadian Goose — inherited this property from
15 May, 2019
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10 min read
There's A Deeper Systemic Problem in the College Admissions Scandal No One Is Talking About
Surely you have heard of the "Varsity Blues" scandal, in which the rich and famous purchased "side door" entries to elite colleges for their children with mediocre academic and athletic skills.
There were at least two ways they cheated: at two compromised testing centers in Los Angeles and Houston students were given preferential test administrations—alone with a proctor and extra time; and athletic coaches at elite schools were bribed to steer reserved admission slots for their sport to paying
04 Apr, 2019
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4 min read
Betrayed and Outraged: Winning The Rural Vote In Today's Political Climate
Let’s just call everything outside major urban centers, the rural vote. Betrayed by politicians of every political party, left out of every agriculture-related policy decision in every government agency, on the short end of every economic development strategy at all levels of government, the rural vote is changing. Still broken and outraged, a newly energized coalition now demands integrity in elections and true representation for the people of rural and small town economies.
You want that vote
19 Mar, 2019
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6 min read
10 Nonpartisan Organizations to Watch in 2020
There are hundreds, literally hundreds of organizations and individual campaigns working right now to fix the myriad of problems that face our political and electoral processes -- from the local to the national levels. The organizations tackle voter rights, primary election reform, ballot access, gerrymandering reform, campaign finance reform, alternative voting methods, electing candidates outside the two major parties, and more.
The following are 10 of the biggest organizations working to ref
15 Mar, 2019
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21 min read
Michigan Voted to End Partisan Gerrymandering; Are Partisan Primaries Next?
As a business owner and lifelong resident of Michigan, I am proud to have stood with so many of my fellow citizens soliciting signatures for days and weeks on end to get the “Nonpartisan Redistricting” and “Promote the Vote” initiatives on the ballot and successfully passed in the 2018 midterm election. They were a big win for Michigan democracy and important steps on a journey to a more representative government.
Yet, there remains a large obstruction in our path to achieving a healthy, functi
12 Feb, 2019
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4 min read
Organizations, Lawmakers Push for Open Primaries as Crowded 2020 Field Emerges
The 2020 presidential field is already taking shape. Nine Democrats have announced their campaigns since December, many of whose announcements went under the radar because the lack of media coverage:
* Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana
* Julian Castro, former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and former HUD Secretary
* John Delaney, former Maryland congressman and businessman
* Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii congresswoman
* Kirsten Gillibrand, US Senator (NY)
* Kamala Harris, US Senator (Cal
25 Jan, 2019
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5 min read
Pennsylvania to Dump Paperless Voting Machines, Agrees to Election Audits
HARRISBURG, PENN. - Dr. Jill Stein won a major legal victory in Pennsylvania as state officials agreed to a settlement in her post-2016 election lawsuit. Gov. Tom Wolf's administration guaranteed voting machines with verifiable paper trails, and agreed to an automatic, robust audit in 2022.
"This is a critical victory for everyone concerned with the integrity of our elections. We congratulate the state of Pennsylvania for raising the bar not only for Pennsylvanians, but for voters everywhere,"
29 Nov, 2018
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2 min read
Beyond the Midterms: Independents in History
I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am an independent who believes that at this moment of partisan dysfunction and division that the health of American democracy depends on the capacity of the American people to come together, to grow and to develop.
While the media is saturating us with a focus on the results of who won and who lost in the midterm elections, my attention is drawn to signs of the emergence of a bottom up nonpartisan developmental politic in our country that breaks throu
12 Nov, 2018
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6 min read
Hillary Clinton's Chief Strategist: She's Running in 2020 – But to Settle a Score, Not for The People
In a Monday appearance on Fox and Friends, Hillary Clinton's former chief strategist said: "Do not underestimate Hillary’s positioning to run again. Clintons never stop until they get where they want to go."
Mark Penn, a Democratic pollster and the chief strategist for Clinton's failed 2008 bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, was following up on an op-ed written for the Wall Street Journal Sunday with another Democratic pollster named Andrew Stein. The title of the piece was
12 Nov, 2018
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4 min read
