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One of the fundamental laws of psephology (the study of elections) is Duverger’s Law. This “law” affirms that in single-member districts, where the winner is whoever wins the most votes (plurality voting), the system will produce two major parties. The presence of third parties naturally encourages strategic voting, in which a voter will not choose his or her favorite candidate in order to avoid a “worse” outcome, such as the victory of his or her least preferred candidate. Though this law has

1. Ralph Nader criticizes the use of "spoiler" to describe independent and third-party candidates and how the major parties treat these candidates to maintain their dominance in elections. "Remember that the words "political parties," "corporation" and "company" are not even mentioned in our Constitution, raising the central question of why they are ruling "we the people" today." While Nader does not raise the issue, the above quote should also be considered when we talk about all aspects of t

Since President Obama's inauguration and Rick Santelli's movement-making call to action that inspired the tea party, national politics has been a triangular affair, with the Republican "establishment" caught in the middle between an anti-incumbent reaction and a seemingly united Democratic front. This triangular dynamic guiding policymaking in the past few years -- from the credit downgrade to the fiscal cliff to the government shutdown -- has led to the exclusion of the progressive wing of the

Three states -- Colorado, Oregon, and Washington state -- have all-mail voting systems in place, but if recent history is any guide, they will soon be joined by other states like California, Arizona, Montana, Hawaii, Utah, and New Jersey. The all-mail system is relatively new; Oregon was the first state to institute it after a referendum in 1998. Washington followed in 2011 and Colorado soon after in 2013. All three states introduced all-mail locally and its popularity led to its widespread use

By the time Dwight David Eisenhower became president of the United States, he had already secured historical immortality as the supreme commander of the victorious Allied Forces in the Second World War. While vanquishing the Nazis, he could not help but marvel at the infrastructural achievements of the Germans, most notably their broad highway network called the Autobahn. The German’s national accomplishment juxtaposed strongly with the United States’ meagerly funded, crumbling interstate highw

A March 7 Pew Research article found that 50 percent of Millennials consider themselves independent. When compared to the 39 percent of Gen Xers, 37 percent of Boomers, and 32 percent of Silents who say the same, a trend becomes clear: as generations come and go, the number of independents continues to increase. Will Millennials be the generation to finally end partisanship? For some, the answer is a definite yes. "I think there's a good empirical and theoretical basis for saying that this ver

It is quite well known by now that there is two-party dominance in the United States because of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) -- or plurality -- electoral system. Third parties can have an unintended “spoiler effect” on contests by stealing votes from the ideologically similar -- but more viable -- candidate. For instance, in Virginia’s 2013 gubernatorial election, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis siphoned nearly 150,000 votes from Republican Ken Cuccinelli’s total, which was enough to give

For the 46.5 million Americans living below the poverty line, 16 million of which are children, life has become a consistent struggle. This struggle does not simply begin and end with monetary concerns, but in fact surrounds both a physical and mental exertion of the individual.Using the national U.S. census and NCCP, researchers found that in 2013, the poverty line rested at $11,490, a number which equates an individual working full time while only making $5.00 – far below the national minimum

The Democratic Party is currently challenging the open primary system in Hawaii. Although Hawaii's primary system is funded by all taxpayers, the Democratic Party is asking the court to close the primary, thereby preventing voters not affiliated with the major parties from being allowed to participate.On Thursday, the Committee for a United Independent Party (CUIP), along with attorney's from the EndPartisanship.org coalition, filed an amicus brief that was accepted by the court over an attempt

Idaho attorney Gary Allen clearly recalls how he was received by state legislators when a federal district judge ruled that the state’s open primary system was unconstitutional. “I stood in front of the legislative committee and told them, ‘You don’t have to do this,’” he said in an interview. “It isn’t in the interest of the voters or democracy or the state." "I might as well have been talking to a wall,” he added. Allen, a partner with a Boise-based law firm, saw his coalition group lose th