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The standoff in Oregon that began on January 2 appears to have reached its conclusion. On Tuesday, January 26, several occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were arrested, and one occupier, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement. The leader of the occupiers, Ammon Bundy, has since called on the occupiers to return home. Only four occupiers remain, and a federal judge has denied the release of several apprehended individuals until the occupation ha

Is the two-party system dissolving before our very eyes? Is the nation witnessing the breakdown of the political process, as we know it? We are in one of the most fervent presidential contests to take place since maybe 1992, when Ross Perot jumped in and out of the race, challenging the status quo with his quixotic run. He surprisingly garnered 19 percent of the vote. Or, maybe we need to look back even further to 1912, when Theodore Roosevelt formed the Bull Moose Party, breaking from the Repu

It's incredibly sad that in a country that is supposed to be the "city upon a hill" example to the world, we rank 120th out of 169 countries in voter participation. In 2012, just under 55 percent of the voting age population turned out to vote, in a presidential race that was decided by 5 million votes. That's a lot of votes, but it could have been easily swayed either way by the 106 million voting age citizens who didn't think their vote mattered.We could learn a lot from countries where peop

In 2015, the Kansas legislature gave Kris Kobach (R), the secretary of state, the authority to prosecute instances of voter fraud. Before this measure, it was up to local district attorneys to investigate and prosecute. During the debate on the measure, Kobach assured the state legislature that he had uncovered 100 (and then later 200) cases of double voting. Yet, seven months into this executive power grab, only 6 people have been prosecuted under the new law. Kobach's numbers should have be

Since 2013, Kansas has required proof of citizenship to vote in elections. But there’s a small problem with that. While the Kansas voter registration form requires proof of citizenship, the federal voter registration form (available at eac.gov) does not. Kansas has requested that the Election Assistance Commission amend the state-specific instruction to the federal forms to include proof of citizenship, but the Commission has not acted on this request. To combat this, Secretary of State Kris K

Fox News released its lineup for Thursday’s GOP debate on Monday night, announcing that the stage will hold seven candidates, cutting Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina from the lineup. In preparation for the primetime debate, which will air at 9 p.m. ET, Fox Business Network reportedly selected its lineup based off of the top six candidates in the five most recent national polls, as well as any candidates polling in the top five in either Iowa or New Hampshir

The Centrist Project today released the results of an online survey of 1200 likely Missouri voters in the United States Senate election in 2016 that shows 34.5% of voters would support an unnamed independent candidate, while 19.1% would support the Republican candidate and 19.9% would support the Democratic candidate. Twenty-six percent of voters said they would support “whichever candidate most closely aligns with their values.” The survey did not specifically name any potential candidates for

In a country with almost 320 million citizens, the secret ballot in elections almost ensures one simple fact--that voting fraud will exist, either from voters or the structure itself. The secret ballot isn't a truly time honored institution in America -- only universally applied for a little over 100 years. In fact, Grover Cleveland was the first U.S. president elected exclusively by the secret ballot. Could it be that the secret ballot itself is what truly needs a dose of transparency to ensu

The end of a year is an important time for reflection. In order for a person or organization to grow they need to continually ask themselves: What has gone well for me so far? What can I improve on? As the new year approaches we here at The Centrist Project wanted to take a look back at our experience thus far so we can take the lessons learned with us into 2016 and beyond. Here are a couple of the big ones: 1. American politics needs a disruptive innovation The spirit of innovation has been

Following the suspected terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, two senators have introduced a bill that privacy advocates could see as a means of enhancing surveillance powers that were reformed earlier this year. The USA Freedom Act, a law that replaced some sunset sections of the Patriot Act, passed in June. The new law decreed that the National Security Agency (NSA) would no longer collect phone metadata records, but those records would remain with the telecommunications companies.