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The greatest benefit of an online election is convenience. The mechanism would make it easier to participate in elections and ensure that those in power represented a larger portion of the public. We will discuss how online elections would spark participation later in the series. Today we are focused on voter participation during presidential elections. The last two presidential elections provide a measuring stick that we can use to evaluate voter turnout and voter fraud. Presidential election

The last time a third party candidate realistically challenged the two-party duopoly was in 1992, when Texas billionaire Ross Perot ran against President George H.W. Bush and Democratic candidate Bill Clinton. By mid-April, Perot was polling ahead of both men--a level of independent success that has yet to be repeated. By the summer of 1992, Perot withdrew from the race, only to jump back in by October. It's a move that left many wondering, what could have been and why did he do it? Bill Hills

, which is a government sponsored enterprise created by an act of Congress. The Fed even returns any profits from its activities to the US Treasury anyways. Its assets are assets of the federal government. This is money the government essentially owes to itself. Last year, Ron Paul suggested that Congress knock all that money off the national debt (and thereby create some breathing room between Congress and the debt ceiling) by instructing the Federal Reserve to forgive all those debts by destr

A trending topic on Twitter this weekend has been a plea for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to select either Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin or Senator Marco Rubio from Florida as his running mate with the corresponding hashtags "#giveusryan" and "#giveusrubio." The smart money remains on Romney selecting either Ohio Senator Rob Portman or former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, but the speculation about a candidate like Ryan is based purely on political celebrity

Angus King, former independent governor of Maine in 1994 and 1998 is running for senate as an independent in November. King has gotten a lot of media atention so far, what other independent governors are we overlooking? Illinois Maine Minnesota Oregon Rhode Island and Texas have all had formally elected independent governors. In 1974, Illinois elected its first two governors, Shadrach Bond and Edward Coles, both independents. Besides Angus King, Maine elected independent James B Longley in 19

Rumor has it that Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is moving up the ranks in the search for a Republican VP. Pawlenty was on John McCain’s shortlist in 2008 prior to McCain blessing us with Sarah Palin. Tim Pawlenty is a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, served two terms as governor of Minnesota, and made a brief presidential run in 2011. Since dropping out of the race, he has been on the trail pushing Romney into the spotlight. Aside from mere rumor of Pawlenty be

Credit: Purple Strategies Purple Poll July 2012 In a new Purple Poll released today, voters in 12 swing states diverge dramatically on their views of the country's economic trajectory. This overwhelmingly affects who they plan on casting their ballot for in November. "Among those who believe the economy is getting better, 93% support Obama, 4% favor Romney. And among those who say it is getting worse, Romney leads Obama 84% to 7%," says the Purple Strategies findings. This economic question i

Presumed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is believed to have made his VP decision and may disclose it as soon as this week, the New York Times reports. Some names that have been thrown around recently: * Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty * Ohio Sen. Rob Portman * South Dakota Sen. John Thune * Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal * House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan * Senator Marco Rubio * Senator Kelly Ayotte * Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Any guesses as to whom he m

Touting a new mandatory treatment program for non-violent drug offenders in the state of New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie is the latest high-ranking US government official to condemn the decades-long War on Drugs. In a speech Monday at the Washington, DC-based Brookings Institution, Christie called the War on Drugs a well-intentioned public policy failure: "The War on Drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a failure, and that we're warehousing addicted people every day in state prisons in N

Governor Rick Perry of Texas joins a list of growing states who say they will refuse to implement Medicaid expansion in their states. The one-time presidential hopeful stated yesterday, “If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.” Gov. Rick Perry’s decision makes Texas the sixth state to opt out of Medicaid expansion so far. Texas joins Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Wisconsin in using