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The fight against gerrymandering nationwide is taking a new turn. Courts are no longer just looking at discrimination based on race, sex, or class, but political discrimination and partisan motives to consolidate power and weaken the voice of voters outside the party in power. First it was Wisconsin. Then it was Pennsylvania. Now, more states are open to legal challenges against partisan gerrymandering thanks to the "efficiency gap," the statistical method used in Whitford v. Gill to determine

T.J. O’Hara, IVN’s podcast host, is joined by Tim Canova. Last year Tim Canova ran against then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in South Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. The two discuss how he was inspired to run and the race against Wasserman Schultz. They look at the class action lawsuit filed in Florida against Wasserman Schultz, and the numerous faux pas she’s made that have alienated a myriad of voters. Tim Canova announced on the evening of Thursday, June 15, that he intends to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXD9mN4EI8 Update 6/19/17: The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to issue a stay in Gill v. Whitford. This means until the justices rule on the case itself, the current electoral maps will stay in place. The Supreme Court will decide if a lower federal court was right to find that Wisconsin's state Assembly maps violated the constitution on the basis of a partisan gerrymander. The high court's decision to hear the case is a big deal. Up until November, federal courts la

You know you’ve made it when you become the subject of a Twitter war. Over the weekend, DNC establishment figures took to the Twittersphere to duke it out with progressive activists over the Party’s use of closed primaries. The three-day debate was provoked by Young Turks reporter Nomiki Konst, after she tweeted a series of statements in support of open primaries. You can see part of the exchange here. https://twitter.com/NomikiKonst/status/874320664018268161 https://twitter.com/NomikiKonst/s

Pennsylvania is the latest battleground over the issue of partisan gerrymandering. Several plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging congressional maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly that are "so bizarrely engineered that the only fair inference is that the Republican mapmakers made them so for partisan advantage." What is unique about this lawsuit is that the plaintiffs are not making a constitutional challenge based on race, sex, or any other class. Th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxCpfrFWcGk Loyalty: Devotion and faithfulness to a cause, country, group, or person. Much will be made of James Comey's testimony Thursday, but one word has been the focus of the former FBI director's comments: Loyalty. Comey claims in a statement that the president prompted him to drop a federal investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Flynn was dismissed over his failure to disclose Russian communications. Comey also claim

Former DNC Data Director Andrew Therriault is upset at Hillary Clinton. He believes the former Democratic presidential candidate went too far when she said the party's data was "mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong," calling the DNC out for being partly responsible for her loss. https://twitter.com/JimmyPrinceton/status/870135874947866624 Hillary Clinton made her comments onstage at Recode's Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She started her remarks by saying she was "very pro

Ballot Access News reported Wednesday that the Oregon State House passed a bill that would add Oregon to the National Popular Vote Compact (NPVC). The plan is simple: Each state that joins the NPVC commits to giving all of their Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Here are some facts you need to know: * The NPVC is law in 10 states, plus the District of Columbia: California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont,

The Texas House approved a bill Saturday that eliminates straight-ticket voting, which allows voters to choose a party's entire slate of candidates in a single ballot marking. Texas will likely become the second state in 2017 to eliminate straight-ticket voting, following Iowa. The bill, HB 25, originated in the state House, and was initially approved by the chamber in early May. However, before passing the Senate, an amendment was added to the bill that required the bill to go back to the Hous

From the media blackout of a DNC lawsuit to open primaries to term limits and more, here are 5 things you may have missed in nonpartisan political and election news. 1. Media Blackout of DNC Lawsuit Go to CNN or MSNBC or NBC News or the New York Times or Washington Post and  you won't find much on an ongoing lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee and former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz for showing favoritism toward Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic pr