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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

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- California legislators introduced a bill last March that will automatically register citizens to vote when they obtain or renew their driver's license. The new law follows in Oregon's footsteps with the hopes to increase California's record-low voter turnout of 42.2 percent. California's new Motor Voter Act (AB 1461), introduced by Secretary of State Alex Padilla and jointly authored by Assemblymembers Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), and Kevin McCart

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

This week a handful of presidential hopefuls touted the millions in campaign donations they racked up during the second quarter of 2015. Official FEC disclosures will not be available until later this month; however, some candidates (Clinton, Sanders, and Carson) are choosing to boast about their early campaign fundraising. Yet, most presidential contenders decided to remain quiet on their first quarter figures, opting instead to let the media do it for them when FEC disclosures are released lat

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised at today's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the United States. Not in the outcome -- in my mind that was all but a foregone conclusion. But instead, in the way it played out. I was banking on one of two things: a convoluted split-majority opinion that would force the issues to be fought out in the lower courts for more years to come while upholding current pro-rulings, or a unanimous decision in favor. Obviously, the tactic of the

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