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Though the first caucuses and primaries are still weeks away, Hillary Clinton already has a significant lead in the race for the Democratic Party's nomination. According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press in November, in which more than 80 percent of the party's 712 superdelegates stated which candidate they plan to support at the convention in Philadelphia, 359 said they would be supporting Clinton, compared to just 8 for Bernie Sanders and 2 for Martin O'Malley (210 said they were

The North Carolina State Board of Elections finalized the list of qualified candidates for the state's primary elections Tuesday, certifying 27 candidates for 3 party ballots. In other words, there are 27 candidates running in the primary elections in North Carolina, but because the state holds partisan primary elections, voters will not be able to choose from all 27 candidates. North Carolina is often described as having semi-closed primaries because parties allow unaffiliated voters to parti

The spirit of America is strong; the state of our union is fragile. That is my conclusion after 100 days driving 14,128 miles through 34 states as an independent candidate for President of the United States. I met with over 1,000 people individually and in small groups. I mostly stayed away from big cities and college campuses. I had learned on two short campaign trips before this long one that very few Americans understand there are independent candidates running for office so I got in the ha

Historically, presidential races have come down to only a handful of toss-up states being the difference between victory and defeat -- the red/blue map has become fairly well-defined. Enter John Bel Edwards (D) who won the governorship of Louisiana on November 21 by a fairly resounding margin, capturing 54 percent of the vote. State governorships can give a glimpse into the 'at-large' intentions of a state, but this is hardly a sure thing in politics. Louisiana has a long history, since WWII,

In August, Jason Olson, director of Independentvoice.org, and Dr. Omar Ali, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and expert scholar on populist political movements, published a study called, A Quiet Revolution: The Early Success of California's Top Two Nonpartisan Primary. In their findings, Olson and Dr. Ali highlight a handful of positive trends that have already emerged since the nonpartisan, top-two primary was first implemented in 2012. Among these trends i

After a fiery first Republican Presidential Debate on August 6, the GOP primary field has continued to shift and change, leaving many pollsters struggling to catch up. To the surprise of many observers, Donald Trump has continued his surge – but new polling techniques helps clarify the nature of his support. TAKE THE POLL: Who do independent voters support for president? While most polls ask for second choices, few report the full breakdown of first and second choice support that allows more p

There was general consensus among the public that Carly Fiorina won the first GOP "happy hour" debate and the poll numbers showed it. Now, even with high poll numbers, Fiorina is at risk of being relegated to CNN's undercard debate in September. "Despite being solidly in the top 10 by every measure, the political establishment is still rigging the game to keep Carly off the main debate stage next month," Fiorina's deputy campaign manager, Sarah Isgur Flores writes. According to Fiorina campaig

While Congress has twice mandated the use of single-member districts (SMD) for electing members of Congress (once in 1842 and again in 1967), state legislatures are at liberty to determine how their representatives will be elected. According to FairVote, at one time, more than half of all state legislators were elected from multi-member districts (MMD). Fifty years ago, more than two-thirds of states had at least some multi-member districts. Today, that number has dropped to just ten: Vermont

WASHINGTON -- With the crowded presidential field, which features 22 Democratic and Republican candidates, not a great deal of attention has been paid to the 585 individuals officially registered on the FEC website as 2016 hopefuls. Among them is "Deez Nuts," who, according to the campaign's FEC form, lives in Iowa and is running as an independent. According to Public Policy Polling, Nuts is putting up decent numbers in North Carolina and Minnesota. COURTESY OF THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

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