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With Republican U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R-10) retiring, the battle over who will take up his seat in Congress for Virginia's northern 10th Congressional District has shown signs that it may divide mainstream and tea party conservatives. Ahead of their April 26 firehouse primary, the already-crowded Republican field features 9 contenders, who were required to formally file last week. Of these, analysts say Del. Barbara Comstock emerges as the Republican establishment favorite, with the

Third parties that have a national infrastructure such as the Green Party and Libertarian Party have waged legal battles from California to North Carolina to improve their ability to get on the ballot. In California, a more lax state regarding ballot access laws, Terry Baum went through several legal hurdles in her race against U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi as the Green Party candidate. The common method is to attain a certain percentage from the previous gubernatorial election for a third

With the November general election a few months away and several primary and special elections ahead, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released a report in January outlining several recommendations to shore up voting lines, increase voter participation and registration, and improve the voter experience. The commission specifically called for states to encourage the use of schools as polling places. Yet, some state election boards and school administrations have pushed back

Video embedded from BenSwann.com When many people hear industrial hemp, the first thing that may come to mind in marijuana. After all, there is a close association between the two, but perhaps not as close as one might think. In fact, the biggest thing that ties hemp and marijuana together is they are both members of the plant genus, Cannabis. It's the old SAT logic question: all marijuana varieties are Cannabis plants, but not all Cannabis plants are marijuana. Hemp cannot be used as a drug l

It seems that in every cycle there is debate about which states should hold the first presidential primary elections. Some state always seems to try to jump ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire. Since 1972, the Iowa Caucuses have been first in the nation and New Hampshire has been the first "primary" since 1920. There, of course, have been states that have attempted to circumvent Iowa and New Hampshire, claiming that they don't truly represent America as they are small states with seemingly narrow

The late, great comedian George Carlin once said “if you vote, you have no right to complain .” There are two problems with that: voter disenfranchisement and ballot access for political parties. Nothing will change if not enough people vote, but if the options in the voting booths are also limited, the problem gets worse. Ballot access is complicated because it varies state-by-state, but the fact that people are complaining about their lack of ability to vote for the party of their choosing i

While the entire military voting system is broken, there are some states whose military absentee voting records are particularly shocking, and it seems that the Department of Defense and state voting officials are simply passing the buck -- pointing the finger at each other as the problem. In the end, it adds up to the disenfranchisement of military voters. According to a report from the Military Voter Protection Project (MVPP), the picture during the 2012 election was not pretty, and unless s

The electric chair could make a comeback in Virginia. Due to a shortage of the drugs used for lethal injection, the Virginia House of Delegates recently passed a bill (proposed by Del. Jackson Miller, R-Manassas) that would allow electrocution of condemned prisoners, rather than giving them a choice which way they prefer to die. The bill still has to go through the Senate before becoming law, however, and Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Richard Dieter thinks it's unlikely to

Table of Contents State-by-state Information How Do Primaries Work? Partisan v. Nonpartisan Closed (Partisan) Semi-Closed (Partisan) Open (Partisan) Open (Nonpartisan) Variants of Traditional Election Systems Top-Two Nonpartisan Primaries Top-Four Primary Instant Runoff Voting Approval Voting Unified Primary Other Voter Resources Independent Movements in Your State GENERAL ELECTION DATE: November 4, 2014 How do I vote? The following voter guide is tailored to provide vital info

Primaries first began in the early twentieth century as a response to increasingly strong party control over elections. At the time, voters wanted a larger say in who would be chosen as their candidate, instead of the long-standing tradition of party bosses choosing who would run for office. Progressive reformers viewed direct primaries as a way for constituencies to increase transparency and allow for citizens to participate in the electoral process. As primaries became a feature of local, stat