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A plume is haunting America -- the plume of legal marijuana. The November ballots of two states, Oregon and Alaska, and the District of Columbia will include initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana. If passed, they will join Washington state and Colorado, who passed their own legalization measures in 2012. Florida voters will decide on a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, but not its recreational use. Oregon The November ballot will include the Oregon Legalized Mari

1. State director for Oregon's Working Families Party explains why his organization endorsed the state's top-two primary initiative. "As a minor political party we understand as intimately as anyone that election rules matter, and as an organization with a fundamental belief that change comes from the bottom up, we believe that progressive change can only be accomplished if we fundamentally change the game on our broken elections system." Steve Hughes, the state director of Oregon's Working Fa

...measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.  --James Madison, The Federalist #10 Author's note: The purpose of this article is primarily to provide the historical basis for investigating systems of proportional representation, a democratic voting system designed to level the playing field and represent the maximum percentage of voters. When only 87 of the 471 (18

Three states -- Colorado, Oregon, and Washington state -- have all-mail voting systems in place, but if recent history is any guide, they will soon be joined by other states like California, Arizona, Montana, Hawaii, Utah, and New Jersey. The all-mail system is relatively new; Oregon was the first state to institute it after a referendum in 1998. Washington followed in 2011 and Colorado soon after in 2013. All three states introduced all-mail locally and its popularity led to its widespread use

In the 2014 U.S. Senate race in South Carolina, most of the focus seems to be on Senator Tim Scott's campaign to not only be the first black senator to serve South Carolina in the Senate, but the first elected black senator in the state. In December 2012, Governor Nikki Haley appointed Scott to replace retiring Senator Jim DeMint. He is running to win the final two years of DeMint's term. However, with all the focus on one candidate, the media is ignoring the minor party candidates in the race.

Update notice: This article has been updated from the original published post to include quotes from Maurice Henderson, the campaign manager for Yes on Oregon Open Primary. Voters in Oregon will have an opportunity to reform elections in the state to give all voters, regardless of party affiliation, a meaningful and equal voice in all integral stages of the election process. Initiative Petition 55, also known as the "Open Primary Initiative," officially qualified for the ballot on Tuesday, July

1. The editorial board of Wyoming's Casper Star-Tribune supports a lawsuit challenging the state's heavy restrictions on third party fundraising. "In Wyoming, the time period for fundraising is tied to the date of the party primary. Campaign contributions are not allowed before that time. With that restriction, Wyoming is inherently presuming that all candidates for statewide office follow the same path to the general election ballot." Except, not all candidates for statewide office follow the

Several states are adopting an alternative approach to measure their citizens' well-being and shape public policy. In 2012, Vermont became the first state to pass a law mandating the use of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). The metric – which has been used in academic circles for years – looks at 26 indicators to measure the social, economic, and environmental costs and benefits of development. One of the law's major proponents, Eric Zencey from the University of Vermont's Gund Institute,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1ZEPeztrg Oregon voters may have an opportunity to reform state elections in November to a nonpartisan electoral system, but before this can happen, the initiative, called the Unified Primary, needs 87,000 signatures in 3 weeks. The Unified Primary would incorporate a nonpartisan, top-two open primary similar to the electoral systems in California and Washington state, but would add approval voting so voters can select more than one candidate on the ballot if th

Demonstrating a national sea change in views toward same-sex marriage, Pennsylvania is the latest state to see its ban on same-sex marriage ruled unconstitutional in federal court. This time the law was overturned by a Bush-appointed judge, a decision supported by the state's Republican governor, Tom Corbett. Corbett has even been outspoken in his views that marriage should be between one man and one woman. The ruling also took an added step in striking down the law than other previous states.