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Reformers in California face a monumental challenge: Can a large coalition of diverse and sometimes opposing perspectives on the most important way to improve elections put their differences aside and bring ranked choice voting to San Diego? A new campaign is about to launch to show voters it's more than possible. Arguably the biggest struggle that has weighed down the pro-voter reform movement over the last several years is engaging in and mending the disputes over reform preferences and goal

The momentum powering the ranked choice voting movement doesn’t appear to be slowing down. Along with being used in a record number of cities in 2021, voters in 3 additional cities approved its use in future elections. Thirty-two cities across 7 states (DE, MA, ME, MI, MN, NM, and UT) used ranked choice voting for their November 2 elections. Twenty-two of those cities used the alternative voting method for the first time, most of which were located in Utah. It is important to note that there i

Could ranked choice voting soon come to the nation’s most populous state? That is the goal of a new coalition that officially launched on Tuesday, September 21. The California RCV Coalition introduced itself to the public during a public Zoom event at a point when ranked choice voting (RCV) is having a moment. RCV is the fastest spreading voting reform in the country, and coalition members hope California will build on both the popularity and success of reform efforts. “There has been a lot of

Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared in the Portland Press Herald and has been republished on IVN by request and with permission from the author. ‍ Greg Kesich’s July 25 column in the Portland Press Herald, “The View From Here: Party politics times five,” is excellent in its analysis of a worn-out theme: partisan elections. Whether two parties or five, the parties do wage a 24/7 uncivil war. But given their vital role, can’t the media help end it? America needs a more honest election

Depending on what news station you watch, you might think that one party is the savior and the other, the enemy, of our sacred right to vote. But what if a larger battle is being waged to secure our right to vote? A battle that threatens insiders on both sides of the partisan political aisles? A battle ignored by a mainstream media that has embedded itself in partisan rhetoric? A battle that would expose the hypocrisy of both parties? From Alaska to New York and Maine, there has been an unprec

After more than a year of economic suffering that has left millions of Americans reeling from the devastating effects of unemployment, the end finally appears to be in sight. While the upward trends that we are experiencing are certainly promising, there is a misguided misconception that there are already enough quality jobs out there, and employees simply need to return to work. Despite the progress we’ve made, we certainly aren’t out of the woods yet, and it is important that lawmakers continu

Voters in New York City won't know who won Tuesday's hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary just yet. Voters went to the polls to rank for the first time their preferences in a large field of viable candidates. And, thanks to the implementation of ranked choice voting (RCV), getting only a plurality of support was not enough for any candidate to advance to November. Ahead of the primary election, a WNBC/Telemundo 47/POLITICO/Marist poll found that Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams led t

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The most important story not being told by the mainstream press today is the many movements that have emerged to give voters an electoral system that is truly “of, by, and for” the people. It has not, however, been overlooked by some independent filmmakers. Represent San Diego is hosting a free online screening of the PBS film, Democracy Rebellion, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, at 6 PM PDT. The film explores this missing story of voter empowerment by focusing on the solutions

The movement to take control of primaries out of the hands of political parties is growing. However, nonpartisan primary systems are only in place in a few states, and the only nonpartisan system in the South, Louisiana’s primary, is being targeted by partisan insiders. Fortunately, a bill that would have closed congressional primaries in the state was just dropped by its sponsor. Louisiana has what is commonly referred to as a “jungle primary,” which simply means all candidates, regardless of

We all know the system is broken. It’s rigged. It does not work. How do we know? Because our leaders are not producing solutions to the issues we care about. No one is listening, just talking past each other. But what if the system is working the way it was designed to work? What if politicians are operating very rationally and logically based on incentives of the political system in place? That is what many of the smartest observers of our dysfunctional mess of a political system think. So we