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Politico reported Monday that Art Sisneros, a Texas Republican elector, has chosen to resign his position instead of voting for Donald Trump. Sisneros signed a pledge with the Republican Party of Texas to vote for the nominee, but says he regrets that decision and calls the pledge "illegal" and "immoral." Sisneros has openly criticized President-elect Donald Trump on a number of occasions and previously suggested that he was considering his options to vote against Trump. He explained his ultima

A romanticized view of a past that never happened the way we thought is one of the greatest disservices to a functioning modern republic. It gives us the impression that everything the demi-gods of the past did was right, and everything our modern leaders do is open to the highest scrutiny. Today's political rhetoric is filled with Donald Trump's pledge to not receive any salary as president, but is heavily offset by some of the seemingly outlandish expenses he's already submitted to the feder

California is a leader in clean energy innovation. But energy innovation does not come without a cost. The simplistic discussion about energy policy at the national level usually comes down to this: you either want to protect our environment, or you are a climate change/science denier. In this two-sided partisan world, a practical discussion of consequences gets lost. During this year’s Business and Leadership Conference, hosted by the Independent Voter Project, lawmakers, business leaders, a

There's a lot that American voters may be divided over, but there's one issue that hopefully we can all get together on and embrace a nonpartisan, obvious, and sane position. Demonstrators who have been blocking traffic on streets and highways as part of your protests: please stop! Stop the madness now. The vast majority of the 63 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election have not been out blocking traffic, which is why this is something that we can hopefully all

Fear mongering media outlets have convinced many that we are losing the war on terror at home. The truth is, however, that we are doing quite well. According to the October Terror Threat Snapshot, released by the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee, US authorities have arrested 109 suspects in ISIS related incidences since 2014. The report states, “These individuals had, among other acts: plotted attacks; attempted to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria (or facilitated others’ travel); p

I've written many times on the Electoral College. While there are problems we should address, I'm not for the wholesale elimination of the concept. I'll admit, I'm a center-left, cross-ballot voter. This year, my ballot looked like a Christmas tree, lit up with red, blue, and yellow blips of light that would drive any exit-pollster nuts -- and as such, in the last 16 years I've been 'burned' twice by my presidential pick winning the popular vote while losing the Electoral College. But enough i

You may be asking how the Libertarian Party could have won the 2016 election with no seats in Congress and with its presidential candidate finishing in a very, very distant third place behind the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. But in an election year that everyone considers eccentric at the least, it might not be which party technically "won" so much as which party made forward strides, and by that measure it's a great year to be a Libertarian. For each of the main two political parties

Everyone has heard the grade school story of why we have elections on the first Tuesday in November. It was after harvest time, market days were on Wednesday, and people didn't want to have to travel on Sundays to get to the polls -- that naturally left only Tuesdays or Fridays as the option, with Fridays occasionally being holidays for many religious adherents. But reviewing the Congressional Globe, the written record of the 23rd through 42nd Congresses paints a much, much darker picture -- wi

Raise your hand if you think that the president of the United States should be elected by the popular vote. Ah, it looks like most of you do. Hands down and know that you’re not alone. In fact, poll after poll, for quite some time, has shown that most Americans would like to replace the Electoral College delegate system with the popular vote – one person, one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. Gallup has asked the question since 1944, and a majority has always supported an end to

As the general election nears, FairVote will discuss problems with our election system and electoral solutions offered by ranked choice voting.In a previous blog post, we discussed the problems that can arise when more than two candidates run, and one candidate can without a majority. In reaction to this problem, many states and localities hold a second election featuring the top two vote-getters if no candidate in the primary or general election wins a majority of the vote. This second election