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Rand Paul, once considered the GOP’s savior after two grueling presidential election losses, has fallen on some hard times. Paul was labelled by the media as a front-runner or top-tier candidate months before he officially entered the presidential race on April 7. Now nearly at the 6-month mark, the early stages of the Republican presidential primary changed the game and showed some chinks in Paul’s armor. Paul had two remarkable filibusters to blast drone use and NSA spying, stances that buck

In February, IVN.us reported on the possibility that the Independent Party of Oregon might be named Oregon's third major party by registering 5 percent of the state's voters by August 17 of this year. In August, officers of the Independent Party of Oregon were notified by the Oregon secretary of state that the party has now hit that goal and will be recognized as a major political party for the 2016 election cycle. As the party secretary, I thought it would be a good time to share a brief histo

The California state Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would automatically register to vote any eligible Californian who receives a driver’s license unless they opt out. The measure was prompted by the 42% turnout in the November 2014 election, as well as the turnout for the March 2014 election in Los Angeles, in which only about 10% of eligible voters went to the polls. Nearly 7 million Californians, mostly young people, are eligible but not registered to vote. In an effort to boost the

The California State Assembly approved legislation Wednesday that would allow terminally ill patients to legally end their lives. Lawmakers voted 42-33 after listening to various emotional, religious, or first-hand experience debates about whether or not California would be the next state to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill patients. Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) introduced the latest version of the bill during the special legislative sessi

Labor Day in 2015, to most Americans, is the unofficial end of Summer. Labor Day is nestled in nicely with other American-y holidays that grant permission for BBQs and cheap beer. However, these holidays are firmly rooted in historic dates (except for Cinco de Mayo), or in this case a movement that had a major impact in United States history. With this in mind, let's take a look at why we get the first Monday of September off. The first Labor Day recognition came from the Oregon State Legislat

The latest headlines on nonpartisan voting rights are from California, Oregon, New Jersey, Florida, and more. Enjoy. Groundbreaking Report Released on the Transformative Effects of Primary Reform Source: Kellie Ryan, Business Wire An article from Business Wire on a report by the election reform group, Open Primaries, discussing the impacts the changes in California election law under the Top Two Nonpartisan Primary have produced. My Take: The results of this study were widely reported, incl

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- California legislators, public affairs representatives, and reformers of all stripes attended the first-ever California Nonpartisan Primary Summit on Wednesday at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento. The event, co-hosted by the Independent Voter Project (IVP) and California Forward (CA Fwd), featured a series of discussions on nonpartisan primaries, voting rights, and the future of election reform. Proposition 14, better known as California’s nonpartisan, top-two primary, was

The nonpartisan or "top-two" primary in California is working and the Golden State has more competitive elections, has increased voter access and a better functioning legislature. Those are the key findings released today in a report from called A Quiet Revolution: The Early Success of California’s Top Two Nonpartisan Primary from Open Primaries. The authors of the report are Jason Olson, the president of Independentvoice.org, a San Francisco based organization of independent voters and Dr. Oma

As Bob Conner reported for IVN in 2014, New Jersey’s independents spent approximately $100 million to pay for primaries in which they could not vote between 2000 and 2013. The obvious question is, how did this come to be? How did taxpayers come to subsidize party primaries? The origin of government-administered primaries begins in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when state governments began to intervene to curb the influence of party bosses and tackle corruption. A series of reforms – including

While a majority of Americans - 52 percent - now favor weed legalization, the federal government has done very little to act on the changing views of the nation. Many states, however, have taken matters into their own hands, passing legislation to better represent the changing attitudes of their residents. Today, 4 states - Oregon, Colorado, Washington, and Alaska - plus our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, 24 states have legalized medical ma