Search query: new jersey

This year did not give voters much in terms of transcending partisanship at the Congressional level. However, breakthroughs of candidates and politicians who have publicly challenged the fiction that politics is a choice between Republican or Democratic ideas should not go unnoticed. Included in this list are politicians whose actions cannot be defined as simply left or right. Instead they represent a diverse set of principles and ideas that span the political spectrum. Here are the most indep

IVN is built on the idea that anyone who is willing to participate in the news, under the simple etiquette, should be able to speak for themselves. As a result, IVN's content reaches millions of readers every month, over 100,000 readers follow our news on Facebook, and IVN continues to be the fastest-growing news source for independent-minded voters. To date, over 8,700 articles have been published since the first iteration launched in 2008. Since few readers will have the time to look through a

Appellants in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the New Jersey primary structure filed a reply to the secretary of state’s opposition brief with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. The EndPartisanship.org coalition reasserts its argument that because primary elections are an integral stage of the public election process, the state has an obligation to protect every voter’s fundamental right to equal and meaningful participation. Since March, when the EndPartisan

When looking to the Founders on the topic of education, probably the finest example to turn to is Noah Webster. Often called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education," his primers were used for more than five generations. teaching children to read and write while secularizing their education. Common Core education is a modern political hotbed, mostly along the red/blue divide. It's a revolutionary way of teaching students and is an attempt to standardize learning throughout the United

On Monday, the Equal Vote Coalition (EVC) filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Third Circuit of Appeals in the case, Balsam v. Guadango (the lawsuit filed by the EndPartisanship.org coalition), supporting the argument that the closed partisan primary in New Jersey does not protect the fundamental right all voters have to an equal and meaningful vote. The Equal Vote Coalition was founded by Mark Frohnmayer, an entrepreneur and technologists from Oregon, who was the chief petitioner of 2014 Orego

Although the midterm election fever has largely subsided, the courts are heating up over the issue of redistricting and gerrymandering lawsuits. For the 2014 term, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear three cases on redistricting commissions, and the Florida Supreme Court has also heard its own case over redistricting. Elections are contentious contests and at the heart of these arguments is who has the power to draw district lines that influence the outcomes on Election Day. All of these case

On Tuesday, December 3, New Jersey Attorney General John Hoffman filed an opposition brief with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the EndPartisanship.org coalition's appeal. While the coalition argues that an equal and meaningful vote in all integral stages of the election process is a fundamental right, the state continues to argue that only Republicans and Democrats enjoy this right, even though this integral stage of the election is funded, administered, and sanctioned by

Redistricting is a process that occurs once every ten years, where census data is utilized to redraw the boundaries of each congressional district, so as to keep the representational power of each district relatively even. The underlying rationale for redistricting is to ensure that the "one man, one vote" ethos stays meaningful. Yet a political party can redraw districts in a way that favors itself at the expense of the others. By packing voters from other parties in a small number of district

On Monday, November 11, FairVote filed an amicus brief with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in support of a lawsuit challenging the current primary system in New Jersey, which the EndPartisanship.org coalition argues gives the Republican and Democratic parties a monopoly over the political process while locking out 47 percent of the state's electorate. FairVote, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., is committed to supporting electoral systems that offer every voter fa

Nine of New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts were won by incumbents this year, and of the three open seats, only one district was seen as competitive going into Election Day. In the heavily gerrymandered districts, usually the most important elections are during the primaries, which just makes general elections mandate-affirming exercises. However, in New Jersey, nearly half of the electorate is locked out of the closed primary process because they choose not to affiliate with the Republican