Search query: virginia

Primaries, despite all appearances, are actually necessary as vehicles of Democracy. Most readers of IVN have a general idea of what primaries are and how they function. However, I would argue that the benefits of primaries are rarely, if ever, mentioned. The reason for this is because they are old and we, as a society, have forgotten why they were necessary. U.S. Parties The United States electoral system is unique. There are few if any modern countries that can boast the stability and the c

On Sunday, November 9, former congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) published a post on The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity's website, discussing the political ramifications of the 2014 midterm elections. Ron Paul made it clear before the results came in on Tuesday that he believed that no matter who secured control of the Senate on election night, nothing was going to change because the major parties have a monopoly on the U.S. political process. "Yes, power shifted, I wrote. But the philoso

"No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen."  -- U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 3, Clause 3 Every once in a while we get to see a politician jump across state lines to take advantage of an open Senate or House seat -- Hillary Clinton's successful senatorial bid in New York has been a high-profile recent

No one party is going to hold the majority for long. For all the rhetoric from the vice president, by the end of Election Day, the results were not that surprising. The Democrats were not going to keep control forever and the Republicans need to realize neither will they. Now that the midterms are over, the next tough pill to swallow are the next two months of watching and waiting to see what comes out of the 2014 lame duck Congress. These 5 areas will show how far the Republicans can reach acr

On Tuesday, Californians went to the polls to determine the legislative makeup of the world's 9th largest economy. Democrats held onto every statewide office, including the governorship, where Jerry Brown was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term. However, down the ballot, Democrats were unable to hold onto key seats, like Sharon Quirk-Silva in Assembly District 65 and Jose Solorio in Senate District 34. Assembly Districts 16, 17 and 39 were too close to call Wednesday as mail-in and provi

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

The 2014 midterm elections are less than a month away and the GOP is poised to seize a majority in the Senate, though that would require winning some close races. Some are expected to come down to just a proportionally small amount of votes. RealClearPolitics rates 10 Senate races as “toss-ups” and 7 of them involve Democratic incumbents. The difference between victory and defeat will come down to voter turnout, which in turn depends on voter access laws, which state governments have been keen

The Associated Press reports that the Supreme Court on Monday rejected to hear the appeals of 5 states in an effort to keep their bans on same-sex marriage. Marriage rights will immediately be extended to gay and lesbian couples in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In addition to ending the delay on marriages in these states, according to the AP report, same-sex couples in 6 other states may be allowed to get married soon as well after federal courts struck down marriage bans in