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Prominent legal scholar and political activist Larry Lessig has entered the 2016 race for the White House. Joining Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malley for the Democratic nomination, Lessig has an unconventional platform. Aiming to become the first referendum president, Lessig has focused his entire campaign on passage of his Citizen’s Equality Act. The act consists of three fundamental electoral reforms that address the increasingly undemocratic nature of the American electoral

He won't likely get much attention from the mainstream media, but one-term U.S. senator and former Navy secretary Jim Webb launched his presidential campaign on Thursday. Webb made the announcement on his campaign website and brings the total number of Democratic presidential candidates to five. USA Today reports: "After many months of thought, deliberation and discussion, I have decided to seek the office of the Presidency of the United States," he wrote. In his statement, Webb acknowledged t

Since the movement launched in 2006, National Popular Vote has made significant progress to reform the way Americans elect their president. The group's plan involves a state-by-state approach. States that join the National Popular Voter Interstate Compact (NPVIC) agree that rather than having their electors cast their ballots for president according to whichever candidate won the most votes in their respective states, the electors will instead vote for the candidate who won the most votes natio

The 2012 presidential election was certainly the most expensive in American history. President Obama's re-election effort cost $1.1 billion, including nearly $700 million spent directly by his campaign. Mitt Romney's campaign spent over $400 million, but he received almost $800 million in additional outside help. The cost of the 2016 presidential election, however, is expected to surpass these figures. One estimate reaches as high as $5 billion, and Hillary Clinton's campaign might spend as muc

FairVote on June 12 released Government of the Few in the “Decided Dozen" -- Frozen Representation and the Distorted Demographics of Decisive Primary Elections. Report authors Andrew Douglas and Zack Avre zero in on the “Decided Dozen”—12 states where control over the state legislature and the outcome of the great majority of general election races is never in doubt, leaving the only meaningful choices and power to voters in low turnout, unrepresentative primary contests. Source: FairVote: The

Common Sense Action (CSA), a grassroots network of college students who are working to formulate methods through which Generation Y may traverse the many onerous political and economic challenges that they will likely inherit in the coming years, is conjoining with Run for America (RFA), a nonprofit political advocacy group with a similar mission, to form Run for America Action. With 40 campus chapters dispersed across 20 states -- from Boston University to UC-Berkeley, Michigan State to the Un

Independent voters are the fastest growing voting bloc in the U.S. The number of people who self-identify as neither Republican nor Democrat has been on a steady incline since 2008. In the last two years alone, the number of voters registered without a party preference has increased by hundreds of thousands of voters, increasing the number of states where independent voters exceed party registration. There are several states that do not require voters to declare their political affiliation whe

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published state-level data from it's National Survey on Drug Use and Health this month. The data examines marijuana use in each state from the last two years. In a state-by-state comparison of marijuana use, Rhode Island topped the chart with 14.8 percent of residents age 12 and older consuming the substance monthly. A number of states that have recently passed legislation to legalize the drug for adults over 21 were also near the t

As expected of every election season, political gaffes were bound to happen. Gaffes have been associated with campaign exhaustion, an unsuccessful attempt at humor, or a lack of emotional discipline. Aside from acting as fodder for jokes or fuel for opponents, flubs made by political leaders and candidates alike can create a personal insight that their political image would not allow. Scott Walker Even after a successful 2014 reelection bid, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) still managed to la

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