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A new bill has been proposed in the Texas Legislature that would give local municipalities and school districts the authority to implement ranked choice voting (RCV) for nonpartisan elections. HR 259, introduced by State Rep. Vicki Goodwin, would expand the growth opportunities for voting reform in the second-largest state in the US. It would also give the state’s capital, Austin, the green light to use ranked choice voting ballots – which voters approved the use of in 2021. The bill amends th

Each year in November, California and Texas lawmakers from across the political spectrum, industry leaders, and policy experts come together in Hawaii to discuss the biggest issues affecting voters, businesses, and policymakers during the Independent Voter Project’s (IVP) Business and Leadership Policy Conference. Legislators from the two most populous states in the country with nearly identical demographics, economies, immigration issues but polar opposite on politics issues come together to c

US primaries can be summed up in two words: Minority rule. A new report from FairVote found that 120 major party candidates in statewide and congressional primary elections won with less than 50% of the vote in 2022. Forty-three of the candidates won with less than 35% of the vote. The stats are made more abysmal by the reality that most elections are decided in these low-turnout, taxpayer-funded primaries -- which means elections are being decided by the most partisan of voters. “Instead of

Third parties have long struggled to break through a political system that is explicitly designed to benefit the Republican and Democratic Parties. However, the Forward Party is taking an unprecedented approach to tear down the duopoly’s barriers.

Editor's Note: This article originally published on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ The Voting Rights Lab is tracking 2,185 bills so far this session, with 579 bills that tighten voter access or election administration and 1,041 bills that expand the rules. The rest are neutral or mixed or unclear in their impact. Georgia is processing thousands of challenges to voter registrations following the enactment of a new law authorizing such challeng

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is on a roll. Advocates have added win after win at the ballot box across the US. When the voting method is put to a vote, citizens tend to overwhelmingly show support for its use. RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The method of RCV broadly used in the US is called instant runoff voting, which uses an automatic runoff system based off voters' preferences if no candidate gets over 50% of first choice selections without the added expense of a

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ In 2020, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated more than $400 million to state and local governments to boost election administration funding. Since then, more than a dozen states, nearly all controlled by Republicans, have passed laws banning such private contributions. The funds, which were administered by a pair of nonprofit

It doesn’t seem like there is much these days that can unite Republicans and Democrats. However, one thing both parties have consistently agreed on is that nothing should threaten their grip on power. The current electoral process is designed to serve the interests of the dominant two parties and their members. If there is a reform that threatens to upset the apple cart, it will encounter resistance from those who have the most to lose from a fairer, more equitable process. This will include l

For a long time, pollsters, political pundits, candidates, and the media have ignored the rise of independent voters. They have called independents “closet partisans” or “leaners,” and they justify this by how the media twists the narrative. Gallup has consistently found that around 4-in-10 Americans self-identify as independent. However, instead of asking why these voters choose not to identify with a political party, pollsters then ask, “Well, which of the two major parties do you lean more t

Photo by Pete Alexopoulos on Unsplash Early voting is underway in Texas for the March 1 primary. The results in both parties could advance candidates to an expensive, low-turnout primary runoff. However, ranked choice voting advocates say their reform could save taxpayers millions of dollars and produce the best results. “The nation's first primary of 2022 dramatically demonstrates why ranked choice voting has become our nation's fastest growing reform,” said FairVote President and CEO Rob Ric