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The city commission of Fargo, North Dakota is currently considering a proposal that would dump the choose-one voting method used in a majority of cities and states across the U.S. and adopt approval voting for city elections. Fargo has an opportunity to make history as the first jurisdiction in the nation to use approval voting. Here is a quick explanation of how approval voting works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db6Syys2fmE Video Credit: The Center for Election Science "People are seein

No one in their right mind would challenge the importance of primary elections. So, if the first stage of the public election process in closed primary states, like Oregon, doesn't let independent voters participate at all, how can independent voters possibly have an equal right to vote? That’s the question being addressed by two Oregon legislators. In Oregon, 27.7% of registered voters have chosen not to join a party. But, because they have chosen not to join a party, they’re not allowed to

At no time in history has the issue of “open v. closed primaries” been so prominent in the national discussion as it is today. This is, in large part, because Bernie Sanders made it a plank of his presidential campaign. But it is also a consequence of an important reality: independent voters are the fastest growing segment of the electorate, by far. Yet, the first and highly important stage of our election process most often serves the exclusive benefit of the voters who choose to join one of t

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

As the new year gets underway, state legislatures around the country are convening to tackle the issues of the day. In at least nine states, electoral reform is on the agenda. Building on the momentum of historic wins for ranked choice voting in Maine and Benton County, Oregon, lawmakers from Massachusetts to Hawaii have introduced bills that would expand its use in their states. The bills vary in their scope and history. Bills in Virginia and Connecticut would adopt ranked choice voting for al

With a Trump presidency coupled with a GOP Congress on the near horizon, changes in health care reform are finally on the table. Other than those with preexisting conditions, many on the left haven’t been thrilled with Obamacare but will defend it as a “step in the right direction,” presumably toward universal health care or a single-payer system. The right didn't initially respond with pointing out what was actually wrong with Obamacare, somehow feeling the need to engage in hyperbole until th

This piece, written by Rob Richie, originally appeared in Cato Unbound as the lead essay in a series on ranked choice voting in December of 2016. American democracy today is working more poorly than it has in generations. Even as the toxic 2016 presidential campaign featured the two most unpopular major party candidates in modern history and Congress has historic lows in approval, minor party presidential challengers were marginalized, and nearly 98% of congressional incumbents won re-election.

Recently, Real Clear Politics extrapolated demographic trends to project which states are likely to gain or lose U.S. House seats in the reapportionment that will occur after the 2020 Census. Their forecast, shown below, has nine states losing one U.S. House seat and six states gaining seats. These are only projections, but given that we are now six years into the decade, many of the demographic shifts of the decade are already well advanced and difficult to reverse. Overall, we see a reduced n

News broke Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump will tap former Texas Governor Rick Perry to head the Energy Department, a move that has the mainstream media recalling the 2011 Republican presidential debate where Perry blanked on naming Energy as a department he would eliminate. Sure, there is a bit of irony there, and the mainstream media likes to focus on this irony. However, there is something crucial many media pundits are missing: Perry's legacy as Texas governor was helping grow the

Keep up with the reform efforts building on the post-election momentum. Big change starts small, and these organizations have been hard at work to fix our broken system, little by little. With so much negativity in the media, it is nice to catch up on some of the encouraging efforts of hardworking Americans, fighting for reform. The following summaries have been provided by the organizations themselves: Open Primaries Open Primaries launched a new petition asking the incoming chairs of the R