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Rand Paul, once considered the GOP’s savior after two grueling presidential election losses, has fallen on some hard times. Paul was labelled by the media as a front-runner or top-tier candidate months before he officially entered the presidential race on April 7. Now nearly at the 6-month mark, the early stages of the Republican presidential primary changed the game and showed some chinks in Paul’s armor. Paul had two remarkable filibusters to blast drone use and NSA spying, stances that buck

In August, Jason Olson, director of Independentvoice.org, and Dr. Omar Ali, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and expert scholar on populist political movements, published a study called, A Quiet Revolution: The Early Success of California's Top Two Nonpartisan Primary. In their findings, Olson and Dr. Ali highlight a handful of positive trends that have already emerged since the nonpartisan, top-two primary was first implemented in 2012. Among these trends i

When it comes to predicting elections, Moody's Analytics comes about as close to the seers of the crystal ball as we can get. Accurately predicting every election since 1980, with a perfect scorecard in 2012 (including all electoral votes), the Moody's model is pretty hard to beat. The Moody's model relies heavily on economic data, including real income, real housing, and gasoline prices, as well as political data on a state-by-state basis. As of August 27, Moody's has the Democrats winning 32

Dr. Lynn Kahn describes herself as a sort of government mechanic. Her experience stems from her undergraduate work in psychology and her doctoral work in group dynamics of peacemaking. “Early on, I focused on group dynamics. The psychology work in group dynamics and organizational change just kind of built on each other," Dr. Kahn said in an interview for IVN. Immediately after her doctoral work, she started her career in government as an organizational consultant with a specialty in group dyn

On July 20, IVN reported on Dr. Beth Clarkson's work, alleging voting machine tampering in three states. Interest in this case has definitely grown, with more news sites and groups taking up the story and calling for the Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to audit the election results. I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Clarkson by telephone this past week, to discuss her thoughts and ultimate goals of this case, and I was truly amazed by both the complexity and the amount of evidence tha

This week, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told residents in states where recreational marijuana use is legal to smoke their weed now because when he is president he will enforce federal laws. In a town hall meeting in Newport, New Hampshire, Christie told users of legal marijuana, "If you're getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it." He continued, "As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws." Christie believes marijuana use alters the brain and is a gateway drug to harsher substances

The Senate Appropriations Committee took a 16-14 vote Thursday to approve a measure that would make it easier for marijuana businesses to obtain basic banking services with financial institutions. The amendment, proposed for the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act of 2015, was authored by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The amendment would prevent federal funds from being used to prohibit or penalize financial institutions that provide services to marijuan

One of the more anticipated campaigns for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination has seemingly dropped from the national conversation and is struggling to raise money. Called "The Most Interesting Man in the Senate" by Reason magazine, Rand Paul has built his Senate career on filibustering extrajudicial assassinations and opposing the security state.In the last year, Paul consistently polled close to presumptive leader Jeb Bush. However, as the field has widened, the Rand Paul campaign ha

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

When it comes time to vote in the 2016 congressional primary elections, will you be allowed to vote in the primary of your choice? We’ve updated our analysis on every state’s rules for its primary elections: open primaries, closed primaries, “semi-closed” primaries, and the handful of states that do something else entirely. Click here to see the updated page. The use of publicly funded primary elections to nominate candidates who then appear on the general election ballot is common in the U.S.