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There are many reasons to be thinking about the upcoming Census. Making sure it is properly funded and that there are as few undercounts as possible are two. We should be thinking just as hard, or perhaps harder, about the legislative redistricting process that will follow it in 2021. For the most part, mapmaking for political jurisdictions has been controlled by legislators since the first one one was established.  It has been viewed a basic political right. Computerization of voter and demogr

Donald Trump said that elections are rigged. And he was right. He still is. But, for all his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, there is a major area of institutional corruption that he and his “Democratic” foes are in perfect partnership: rigging elections so voters only have two meaningful choices. If we were talking about the business of elections, and elections are a multi-billion dollar industry, it goes without saying that the Republican and Democratic Parties have colluded closely for so many

New Mexico entrepreneur and horse trainer Jarratt Applewhite could make history in the Land of Enchantment. He is running for State House District 50 as an independent, and if he wins he would be the first person elected to the State Legislature with no party affiliation ever and the first non-Democrat/Republican since 1914. Applewhite launched his campaign this week, stating that he is running on two things in particular: * He wants to bring back the Estancia Valley, and * He wants to fix o

Reformers earned a big win Wednesday. The ruling by Santa Fe District Court Judge David Thompson that Santa Fe must implement ranked choice voting (RCV) is the result of a lot of hard work and community activism by local supporters. FairVote’s Maria Perez, a Santa Fe resident who started on the campaign last March, was tireless and determined to see her local government finally comply with the will of its voters, who overwhelmingly approved of RCV almost 10 years ago. The judge ordered the ne

Supporters of a 2018 ballot initiative to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in California were given the green light by the state attorney general's office earlier this month to circulate petitions and gather signatures. They now have until April 30 to gather and submit 365,880 valid signatures from registered voters in the first state to ever legalize medical marijuana under Proposition 215 in 1996. That ballot proposition, as well as Prop. 64 -- the 2016 voter initiative titled "The Adult Use o

Property rights are fundamental in America – or at least they are supposed to be. Yet each year, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies seize hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cars, homes, cash and other property, with no due process to determine guilt or innocence, or even without even filing charges against the property owner. It’s called asset seizure or civil forfeiture, and it’s just wrong. By claiming that you or your property are related to criminal activity, the government j

The voters of Santa Fe, New Mexico, passed a ballot measure in 2008 saying the city should use ranked choice voting in city elections. The city still hasn’t implemented it. The supporters of ranked choice voting sued the city in the State Supreme Court last month, but that court refused to hear the case. In response, the supporters of RCV have refiled their case in lower state court. The lower state court must hear the case. See this story. Thanks to Electionline for the link. Editor's note:

This column poses a question for which I have only a tentative answer. I am interested to learn what answers readers have. How do you deal with friends who are so intolerant of political views different from their own that they consider anyone who disagrees with them evil? Those of you who follow this blog know that I have been hosting a series of political discussion threads on my Facebook page. (I wrote a book about the initial experiment, because I found the response so interesting.) Two fr

Congress, you’re up. As expected, President Trump has ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program put in place by Barack Obama through executive action. No surprise there; Trump promised to end DACA during the campaign, even though he had teased the so-called Dreamers with assurances that they need not worry. His exact words: “I love these kids.” Under DACA, undocumented immigrants under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, who came to the U.S. before they were 16 years old a

Santa Fe voters took action by filing a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court of New Mexico to order the use of Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in Santa Fe’s municipal elections next March. FairVote New Mexico strongly supports this legal action. This lawsuit was not our first choice. We would have preferred -- and still would prefer -- to have the city council uphold the city charter and institute RCV as voters have overwhelmingly supported. Indeed, it was nine years ago that a resounding majorit