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In response to How State, Federal Courts Are Working to End Partisan Gerrymandering, published July 13, I received several emails and Facebook messages questioning the statistic that the United States is now over 80 percent urbanized by population. While this seems like a huge number, it came from the 2010 Census, which found that: The urban areas of the United States for the 2010 Census contain 249,253,271 people, representing 80.7% of the population, and rural areas contain 59,492,276 people

When it comes time to vote in the 2016 congressional primary elections, will you be allowed to vote in the primary of your choice? We’ve updated our analysis on every state’s rules for its primary elections: open primaries, closed primaries, “semi-closed” primaries, and the handful of states that do something else entirely. Click here to see the updated page. The use of publicly funded primary elections to nominate candidates who then appear on the general election ballot is common in the U.S.

On July 1, Kathryn Steinle was shot and killed on a popular pier in San Francisco. Her murderer, 45-year-old Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had taken sleeping pills he found in a dumpster hours before the shooting. He claims he found a gun wrapped in a T-shirt on a bench and accidentally let off a shot, not realizing he had struck Steinle until he was apprehended an hour later. San Francisco has drawn criticism since the discovery that Sanchez was in the country illegally and had a long criminal

The Illinois special election primary to fill the seat of a resigned congressman is scheduled for Tuesday. Despite being the only election occurring in the country, there has been little enthusiasm or attention for the race. Former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock resigned his seat for Illinois' 18th congressional district amid controversy partly created by his own hand. The elaborate decoration of Schock's congressional office in the style of the show Downton Abbey raised questions about the congressman

Since the movement launched in 2006, National Popular Vote has made significant progress to reform the way Americans elect their president. The group's plan involves a state-by-state approach. States that join the National Popular Voter Interstate Compact (NPVIC) agree that rather than having their electors cast their ballots for president according to whichever candidate won the most votes in their respective states, the electors will instead vote for the candidate who won the most votes natio

Historically, when an election has a wide-open field of candidates, both inside and outside of the two-party system, it's a symptom of America facing a major crossroads. Sometimes it's a party ideological battle, like in our third presidential election of 1796 -- where the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans struggled with the new identity of the nation they helped create. Even more radical, when social change issues stress the election process, strange things start to happen -- like in the

ILLINOIS -- A bill that would extend a pilot program of marijuana decriminalization in Illinois cleared one more hurdle last week, but still faces at least one more. The Illinois Senate passed a bill that would bring the state one step closer to becoming the 18th state to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. The bill would reduce possession of 15 ounces or less of marijuana from an arresting offense to a fine of $125 with no court time. The same bill passed the Illinois House in April. Th

With U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) entering the race for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Clinton, he may offer disgruntled liberals and Democrats an alternative voice. In 2008, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama tripped up Clinton by offering a unique blend of youth, liberalism, and outsider appeal. The Illinois senator was able to credibly assail Clinton on her support for the Patriot Act and the Iraq war. Although a tougher feat for Sanders to replicate, could the Vermonter pos

His name may not ring a bell, but he would prefer that you remember him for what he did instead. Doug Hughes came into the national spotlight recently for landing a gyrocopter on the Capitol Lawn, a stunt typically reserved for action movie characters like James Bond and Mad Max -- not 61-year-old mailmen. Hughes, carrying 535 individually-marked letters to each of the sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, intended to raise awareness about the influence of b

The Illinois General Assembly recently passed legislation that may open the gates for new medical treatments for patients who have received terminal diagnoses. Introduced earlier this year by State Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), House Bill 1335, also known as "Right-to-Try," allows terminally-ill patients to try new drugs that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since drugs can take years to get the FDA's stamp of approval, Harris said the bill is a "last ray of hop