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Advocates of the nonpartisan, top-two open primary system are collecting signatures to get the reform on the 2020 ballot in Florida. The effort comes after the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission rejected a proposal for nonpartisan primary reform earlier this year. "After engaging the Florida Constitution Revision Commission on the subject of open primaries for over a year, the commission failed to act on the second most popular issue brought before them," explained Steve Hough, Chairman

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – The United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME may serve as a landmark decision. While traditional media outlets and the Democratic establishment are already discrediting the decision, the gnashing of teeth may be relatively short-sighted. The very basis of this decision could be used as precedent to attack the Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010). Both cases were predicated on First Amendment protections. The J

WASHINGTON – If like most Americans you’re angry that our democracy feels broken, that elections are being corrupted by billionaire and corporate money, and that politicians are rigging elections through gerrymandering, we’ve got good news for you. Grassroots America is staging a political comeback. Citizen rebellions against the politicians and the power brokers are in full swing – from the student March for Our Lives to the spreading teacher strikes from Kentucky to Oklahoma and Arizona to t

A wise man once said, “Those who make the rules, rule.” Today, we wonder whether the current rules of voting and governing can deliver any kind of progress. An important rules question was on the ballot in Maine yesterday and the voters delivered a clear message. After a hard-fought campaign against a brutal opposition, the voters passed Question 1 by a margin of 55% to 45%. This was a mass veto of the state legislature’s attempt to turn back the will of the voters. In 2016, Maine voters enact

This month, I invited Frank Fear to review the book, Independents Rising: Outside Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America. Jacqueline Salit, the president of Independent Voting and author of the popular IVN column "The Neo-Independent" wrote the book in 2012. After the Politics for the People Book Club read Greg Orman’s book, A Declaration of Independents: How We Can Break the Two-Party Stranglehold and Restore the American Dream, I was struck by how the two books

It’s been a while! However, no matter how little we’ve written about independent candidates and organizations over the past month, actions continue to be taken by those who look to change the two-party system. Let’s start with Unite America and the candidates that fall under their umbrella. Neal Simon, running for U.S. Senate in Maryland, had a fantastic month while opening his new campaign office. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.170783426893078.1073741830.126383201333101&type=1&l=15

Update 5/9/18: Issue 1 -- Ohio redistricting reform -- passed with three-fourths voter support, 74.9% voting "Yes." Update 5/8/18, 8:57 PM ET: Election results in Ohio point to overwhelming victory for Issue 1, with no active opposition opposing the measure. Ohio voters will go to the polls Tuesday for the state's primary elections. On top of voting for their preferred nominees for local, state, and federal elected offices, they will also have a chance to pass major redistricting reform. It i

A Michigan ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana received enough valid signatures to qualify for a vote in November. When the required number of ballot signatures was certified by the State Board of Canvassers, the 4-0 decision of the board was met by cheers from supporters of the initiative who were present, the Detroit Free Press reports. Rick Thompson, a board member of the Michigan National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), put this ballot initiative in

"Hollywood for ugly people." It is not a phrase coined by Michigan independent congressional candidate Cooper Nye. However, Nye says he can see why some people have come to view Washington, DC this way after working in the nation's capital. And the phrase -- from Nye's point of view -- is not a personal attack against individual policymakers on Capitol Hill, but rather a statement on how DC is run and the ugly, partisan, sometimes corrupt culture that has taken hold in Washington. Cooper Nye

If 2016 taught me anything, it is how disastrous political polls have become. And as we head into the 2018 midterms, we should take a hard look how we are conducting them, crunching the numbers and using the results. Voters deserve it. On November 2nd, 2016 Marquette University Law School in Wisconsin issued it’s highly regarded presidential polling results. It was memorable for two reasons. The first reason is that it was conducted between October 26th through the 31st, the time frame in which