Search query: arizona

This weekend saw the candidates sharply carving out their individual stances on the parties' platforms on immigration at the Iowa State Fair. While Donald Trump dazzled party-hardliners with his plan to change the Constitution to abolish jus soli (right of the soil), birthright citizenship, as well as deporting all illegal immigrants without a path to citizenship, Americans in general don't seem to have as aggressive of a stance on immigration. Even within the Republican Party, half support a

As much as Donald Trump called "foul" on tough questioning in the Fox debate, including the Big Question about whether everyone was committed to supporting the Republican nominee, from the point of view of independent voters, the questioners weren't nearly tough enough. Or, put another way, independent enough. Trump was the only one on the stage who refused the GOP loyalty oath, threatening an independent run for the presidency. Since Trump raised that possibility, it is more than fair to consi

If the party system collapsed overnight, would we really have better candidates? Suppose closed primaries were all opened—a long-term goal currently pursued by the Independent Voter Project, The Centrist Project, and numerous others, currently gaining real traction. Suppose America’s ideological constipation were suddenly relieved, breaking out of the notional Conservative-Republican, Liberal-Democrat litmus test that uses single issues to glue politicians to broad platforms. Would we get bet

The nonpartisan or "top-two" primary in California is working and the Golden State has more competitive elections, has increased voter access and a better functioning legislature. Those are the key findings released today in a report from called A Quiet Revolution: The Early Success of California’s Top Two Nonpartisan Primary from Open Primaries. The authors of the report are Jason Olson, the president of Independentvoice.org, a San Francisco based organization of independent voters and Dr. Oma

According to UtahPolicy.com, voters no longer want state legislators drawing state and congressional electoral districts. Instead, the majority of Utahns want an independent redistricting commission redrawing these districts come census time. This report comes a month after the Supreme Court upheld the use of an independent redistricting commission in Arizona. According to the findings, nearly two-thirds of Utah voters "say an independent commission should tackle the once-a-decade job of redraw

The fastest growing segment of voters in Florida are increasingly choosing no party affiliation. These independent voters might soon have the opportunity to vote for a nonpartisan, open primary system in the 2016 election. A bipartisan group filed the All Voters Vote amendment with the Florida Division of Elections on Wednesday in the hope of garnering enough signatures to place it on the 2016 ballot. If approved by voters, the All Voters Vote amendment would implement a nonpartisan, top-two o

While a majority of Americans - 52 percent - now favor weed legalization, the federal government has done very little to act on the changing views of the nation. Many states, however, have taken matters into their own hands, passing legislation to better represent the changing attitudes of their residents. Today, 4 states - Oregon, Colorado, Washington, and Alaska - plus our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, 24 states have legalized medical ma

The movement to reform Illinois redistricting has faced numerous hurdles in recent years, but may be getting new life. One of those movements came in 2014 when the amendment of a group called Yes for Independent Maps was struck down as unconstitutional by a circuit court judge and by the Illinois State Board of Elections for lack of admissible signatures. Independent Maps, now called the Independent Map Amendment, was organized in late April to engineer a new campaign for reforming the redistri

Florida's Supreme Court struck down much of the state's congressional districting map on July 9, ordering the redrawing of what it termed "constitutionally invalid" districts in 2 of the 27 districts (requiring a change to 8 congressional districts). Each district represents about 710,000 voters, making this one of the most significant court cases ever involving the practice of gerrymandering. In 2010, Florida's voters overwhelmingly approved (62.9%) a constitutional amendment with some of the

On Thursday, July 9, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court discarded parts of Florida’s congressional district maps, saying that state legislators had violated a provision of the Florida constitution prohibiting political considerations in redistricting when drawing the districts. The Independent Voter Project (IVP) this week filed a petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of New Jersey’s “closed” primary election system based on the same premise – ele