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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

Tuesday will mark the 114th time Americans will go to the polls and decide who will represent them in Congress -- well, some Americans anyway.National turnout this year is likely to fall in the low 40's to high 30's. The dim, but altogether predictable picture for this year's midterm elections is that less than half of registered voters will participate. If combined with presidential election years, voter participation in the U.S. over the last half-century stands at just over 50 percent. Are '

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsSNGBMMubM Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul appeared on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday. Paul, who has been campaigning across the nation for conservative candidates ahead of Election Day, backed up some sharp criticism for the direction of his own political party. Schieffer asked, "You said and this is your quote, the Republican brand sucks. That's a pretty unusual rallying cry in an election year." Paul's response emphasized the need for Republic

On Monday, November 3, the EndPartisanship.org coalition filed an appellant brief with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in New Jersey, maintaining the argument that the current primary system in the state grants the Republican and Democratic parties a monopoly over the election process while denying 47 percent of the electorate equal and meaningful access to the voting process: “Appellants have not asked this court (and did not ask the lower court) to issue a decision that would require

New Jersey is a decidedly purple state at the moment. Nearly half of the registered voting population is not affiliated with either major party. Voters have elected a Republican governor, two Democratic senators, and mostly supported Obama in 2008 and 2012. Currently, six Democrats and six Republicans represent New Jersey in the U.S. House. However, despite a broad shift within the New Jersey electorate away from the Republican and Democratic parties, most of these congressional districts have

The main talk of the 2014 election has been which political party will control the Senate after the votes have been counted. Democrats have been on defense throughout most of the country as President Obama's approval rating remains low. So with just a week to go before Election Day, how will the numbers fall? Here are my predictions. In this election cycle, Democrats have 38 seats that are safe or not up for re-election while Republicans have 42. So that is where my numbers start.Democrats are

No matter what political ideology a voter identifies with, every single election comes down to one thing: voter turnout. If voters don't go to the polls to cast ballots, their party affiliation, or lack thereof, doesn't matter. But which states have the worst turnouts and why?According to Nonprofit Vote, a group that works with nonprofit organizations to increase voting opportunities, in 2010, there were about 91 million votes cast across the country, which means that approximately 42 percent o

It seems almost crazy to bring up an Aesop's fable in a series about the Founding Father's legacy to America -- but the fable of The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse really exemplifies many of the problems the Founders faced when drafting a Constitution that served the whole United States, not just one aspect, demographic, or region. Examining this can give us very good insight into the modern political dilemma, and shows us that the Founders faced the same voting issues that the parties scanda