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To focus the combined strengths, skills, and experience of some of the nation’s leading election reform organizations toward increasing voter participation and electoral competition, a prominent group of nonpartisan political reform leaders have formed the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers. Founding members include representatives from the Bridge Alliance, Independent Voter Project, the Chamberlain Project, FairVote Action, Open Primaries, the Centrist Project, California Forward, a

Happy New Year! And what an exciting year 2018 will be for independent candidates and the reform movement! In an election year that is supposed to be highly dramatic and very expensive, voters will be told that they have only two options to choose from, red or blue. However, the midterms will offer a record-number of alternative choices to voters who want to end the two-party duopoly. Unite Colorado, for instance, launched Tuesday with a historic slate of independent candidates for the state l

Independent candidate Nick Thomas is optimistic about his chances in Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, and the timing of his candidacy may be just right. The 2nd Congressional District is considered by most politicos to be the most left-leaning district in Colorado. It was heavily gerrymandered to be a deep shade of blue, and has over 172,000 registered Democrats, compared to nearly 136,000 Republicans (December 2017 numbers). Still, much like the state, the largest registered voting bloc

DENVER –– Unite Colorado, formerly the Colorado Centrist Project, announced its first four independent candidate endorsements for the 2018 election cycle. Unite Colorado’s SLATE OF INDEPENDENT STATE LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES includes strategy consultant Steve Peterson (SD-30), small business owner Maile Foster (HD-18), army veteran and college professor Jay Geyer (HD-33), and Thornton City Council member Eric Montoya (HD-31). “For the first time in Colorado’s history, there is a credible, competi

“I didn’t change, the system changed. This system is terribly broken.” That’s what Colorado State Senator Cheri Jahn wrote in her announcement on Friday, declaring that she’s left the Democratic Party and will serve the remainder of her term as an independent. “The unaffiliated voters in my district and statewide deserve representation.” This is a really big deal. Senator Jahn is now the first independent to serve in the Colorado State Senate and the only independent state legislator current

It would have probably never occurred to most politicos that the Democratic Party may be in peril of losing the votes of black women, who make up one of its most loyal and politically active voting blocs. But the slow-motion implosion of both major political parties we are observing in real time on social media may also include an exodus of black women from the party of Jefferson. This weekend, Saira Rao, Democratic Party supporter, social justice activist, and co-founder of In This Together Me

Donald Trump said that elections are rigged. And he was right. He still is. But, for all his “drain the swamp” rhetoric, there is a major area of institutional corruption that he and his “Democratic” foes are in perfect partnership: rigging elections so voters only have two meaningful choices. If we were talking about the business of elections, and elections are a multi-billion dollar industry, it goes without saying that the Republican and Democratic Parties have colluded closely for so many

Supporters of a 2018 ballot initiative to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in California were given the green light by the state attorney general's office earlier this month to circulate petitions and gather signatures. They now have until April 30 to gather and submit 365,880 valid signatures from registered voters in the first state to ever legalize medical marijuana under Proposition 215 in 1996. That ballot proposition, as well as Prop. 64 -- the 2016 voter initiative titled "The Adult Use o

Voter distaste for both the Democratic Party and GOP seems to be at an all-time high. But candidate success outside the major parties remains elusive in Washington.

On the surface, it often seems like our existing two-party dominated system is somehow the way our country is “meant to be” and nothing could change that regardless of how dysfunctional things become. But in poll after poll and in countless other ways, the American people are saying loudly and clearly that the major political parties and their leaders are failing the country and the state. That is why more and more people today identify as independents rather than as Republicans or Democrats.