Search query: colorado

As with past election cycles, third party and independent candidates – as well as initiatives aimed at reducing the power of the two major parties – are struggling to achieve access to general election ballots. In some cases, this is the result of general apathy toward specific parties, candidates, or reforms. In other cases, however, their exclusion from the ballot stems from a variety of causes, including minor technicalities, official ineptitude, constitutionally dubious legal barriers, and,

Evan McMullin’s first full week as a candidate for president has been both surprising and, for some of us, predictable. McMullin talks and acts like a seasoned candidate, and not like a novice traversing his first national campaign. Predictable are the dismissive tones from a political class heart hardened to newcomers. The most successful independent and insurgent candidates burst forth riding a sugar high of excitement, generating animated crowds looking for the new, and garnering quizzical b

It is a big week for both Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. On Monday, August 15, the Johnson-Weld campaign dropped a huge money bomb to raise $1.5 million in a single day, while Stein and her running-mate, Ajamu Baraka, will make their case to the American people during a CNN town hall Wednesday. Both Johnson and Stein want to boost their presence in the national political spotlight in order to qualify for the fall presidential debates. In order to do so,

After the Bernie Sanders campaign put single-payer healthcare in the national spotlight, it's no surprise that many of his supporters are continuing to carry the torch. An initiative proposing a single-payer healthcare plan, popularly known as ColoradoCare, was placed on the November ballot by a petition signed by over 150,000 people. If voted in, ColoradoCare would create a statewide health system supported by an increase in taxes as well as employer and employee contributions. Pro-reform advo

In the weeks since the California primary, when Hillary Clinton joined Donald Trump in becoming her party’s presumptive nominee for president, FairVote has tracked both candidates’ campaign appearances. FairVote’s similar analysis in 2012 showed just how much the candidates focus on swing states that might tip the election with our current Electoral College rules. After the conventions in 2012, Barack Obama campaigned in a grand total of just eight states and Mitt Romney added only two more. The

A lot of people are working hard to fix our broken system. Problem is, most people don’t know just how many important efforts are making strides because the media doesn’t spend much time talking about them. So we are. Voter disenfranchisement and disillusionment has been on the rise for a number of years, but there is something special about this presidential election season. Maybe it’s the fact that we now have the two most disliked presidential nominees in the history of modern politics. In

As the 2016 Republican National Convention wrapped up Thursday, one aspect was clear: Americans are increasingly looking for alternative candidates outside of the two-party duopoly. According to Google Trends, searches for "3rd party candidate 2016" increased by 1,150 percent over the last week. Interestingly, states with the highest third party candidate searches in the United States were (in order): Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, and Michigan. Politico reports t

Support for Libertarian Gary Johnson continues to grow, according to the newest poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist. The poll shows double-digit strength in both Virginia and Colorado. While Johnson has had an average national showing of 10 percent for several months (polling as high as 13 percent in one poll), the nature of a federal republic makes each state's results all that really matters. A double-digit showing in two hotly contested battleground states represents a huge impact on

The #NeverTrump movement is dead. Squashed, as it were, by a new party rule. A 77-21 vote in the RNC Rules committee Thursday effectively banned “conscience voting” for delegates to the Convention, ending the movement among delegates to vote for someone, anyone, other than Donald Trump. The movement was spearheaded by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh and a variety of outside organizations, including Free The Delegates 2016 and Our Principles PAC. Unruh and company strove to encourage delegates t

It’s July in an election year which means that, among other things, it’s convention time. In the lead up to the conventions, parties are in a flurry of preparation, trying to get every element of their respective events together in time for the opening gavel. Amid all these preparations, however, there is one which stands above the rest. Before there can be a party convention, there must be a party platform. A party’s platform establishes its position on a plethora of issues ranging from civil