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Last week, both Illinois and Hawaii passed same-sex marriage making them the 15th and 16th states to do so. Overall, 2013 has been quite a year for the LGBT community. These last two states just seem to put the icing on the proverbial cake. It all comes on the heals of the 2012 election where voters in three states (Maine, Maryland, and Washington) approved same-sex marriage and rejected a ban on it in the state of Minnesota. So, what has transpired during the year? Rhode Island, Delaware, Mi

It's no secret that the nation's veterans are facing some serious challenges. A new film, premiering on Veterans Day, takes a look at issues facing the country's returning service members, as well as how veteran organizations and private charities are struggling to bridge the gap between what the VA provides and what veterans really need. Souldier, The Documentary is a raw, unvarnished look at the troubling issues facing today’s veterans. Among them, PTSD, homelessness, and the self medication

Marijuana legalization activists gained considerable momentum this week. On Tuesday, the city of Portland, Maine, passed Question 1: 67 percent to 33 percent. The measure legalized possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana by adults over 21 years of age. Likewise, Colorado passed Proposition AA Tuesday, which added a 15 percent wholesale tax and 10 percent sales tax on marijuana transactions. These two ballot measures follow a national poll by Gallup that found support for outright legalizat

Concerns about rising tuition and how students can afford to finance their major investments in post-secondary education are widespread. Solid insights into these questions require accurate and up-to-date information about prices. reports on the prices charged by colleges and universities in 2013-14, how prices have changed over time, and how they vary within and across types of institutions, states, and regions. We also provide information on the net prices that students and families actually p

The American electoral system is highly dysfunctional. One of its most basic problems is that districts and states often have lopsided partisan preferences, meaning that general elections between the nominees of the two major parties are overwhelmingly formalities. Consequently, representatives may be effectively chosen in low-turnout partisan primaries that are paid for by all taxpayers, but are often limited to only a portion of the electorate. A number of reforms have been proposed to address

Zack Frank / shutterstock.com New Hampshire proves to be one of the more innovative states in its electoral process. In its House of Representatives, districts are allotted a number of representatives to serve based on their population. Some districts have only one representative, but others have as many as eleven. They are elected through a process of multi-member district voting, where the citizenry casts as many votes as there are seats to be filled instead of voting for each seat separatel

Katherine Welles / Shutterstock.com It seems like it was just yesterday President Obama won re-election helped in no small part by one of the widest margins of victories ever among Latino voters. Soon after, many Republicans began to openly pose concerns about Latinos not just voting Democrat, but voting overwhelmingly Democrat.As Obama moved on immigration reform, right wing stalwarts like Grover Norquist and Karl Rove began to warn Republicans of the need to address immigration reform for pra

Demand, meet Supply Amidst some disenchantment with both major political parties, the chart above shows, when looking across the 50 states, the share of votes earned by candidates that were not either Democratic or Republican has fallen significantly for U.S. House of Representative elections since 2000. The State Data Lab resource (Votes Cast for House Election – Other), developed by Truth in Accounting, shows that states with relatively high shares of non-major party votes in 2000 also had s

Nonprofit VOTE examined the impact of nonprofit organizations on voter behavior within seven states in an August 2013 study. It found that those contacted by a nonprofit organization -- in regards to the election -- turned out at 74 percent while 68 percent of all registered voters turned out. The data from the study suggests that nonprofit organizations fight an uphill battle when trying to increase turnout since their target audience has a historically low propensity to vote. However, nonpro

The partisan battles in North Carolina are extending their reach into the court system. Over the past year, the Republican controlled legislature, aided by a Republican governor, Pat McCrory, enacted a host of controversial legislation that banned gay marriage and put in place new abortion restrictions. Then last week, they passed new voting laws which MSNBC called "a truly abominable piece of anti-democratic legislation." The bill was purportedly to prevent fraud, although fraud has not been a