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It’s been a month since Election Day, and we still don’t know who won the 2020 election! While it’s looking more and more clear every day that Joe Biden will be inaugurated in January, Donald Trump has yet to concede. At least the president has confirmed that he will step aside if the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden. Looks like we dodged WWIII and Civil War II this year: ‍ ‍ Adding to the confusion, is the fact that a 73,700 vote swing Trump’s way in AZ, PA, and GA would have changed th

In the midst of social turmoil and civil unrest, on top of an ongoing pandemic, the news didn’t spare much time to talk about 9 primary elections held Tuesday -- primaries that, according to vote at home advocates, prove absentee ballots work. Four states -- Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- postponed their primary elections to June 2 to allow voters an extended opportunity to request absentee ballots, while DC, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota largely increased th

Originally published on The Fulcrum. Enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 remains a celebrated landmark in American history. It's time to celebrate the law's potential anew by making some big changes in how state legislatures are elected. My home state of Virginia illustrates the merits of doing so. First, a quick refresher course: The law enacted 55 years ago put an end to literacy tests, poll taxes and a host of other discriminatory practices that had kept minority voters from gaining

For the last several years, I’ve been spending time in rural Wisconsin in a small farmhouse set on 130 heavily-wooded acres on County Road T, Polk County. This is the northwestern Wisconsin of hardscrabble dairy farming, bitter winters and luminous springs. I’ve come here because my companion — a Minnesota-born outdoorsman of Swedish extraction who lived much of his adult life in Alaska and wears a thin fleece jacket in the cold while I layer up in Canadian Goose — inherited this property from

A Roadmap to A Better Democracy By: Wes Messamore Reform activists from around the country gathered in the Country Music Capital of the World –– Nashville, Tennessee –– over the last weekend in March to celebrate an absolute tidal wave of policy victories in 2018; listen to inspirational speeches; share and learn the nuts and bolts of policy reform; and even to air fierce differences of opinion over the best way to reform elections in America and over other areas of public policy. How they buz

The 2020 presidential field is already taking shape. Nine Democrats have announced their campaigns since December, many of whose announcements went under the radar because the lack of media coverage: * Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana * Julian Castro, former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and former HUD Secretary * John Delaney, former Maryland congressman and businessman * Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii congresswoman * Kirsten Gillibrand, US Senator (NY) * Kamala Harris, US Senator (Cal

You may have heard the story. In late December, it came out that leaders of the Women’s March made anti-Jewish remarks and had ties Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. You can see the Women’s March press release in response. The story led to outrage, and the outrage led to the Democratic National Committee removing their support and a split march in New York. Additionally, marches in Humboldt, California and New Orleans, Louisiana were cancelled and the Washington State Chapter

In December, I wrote an article on a particularly egregious case of the famous legislative "revolving door." After sixteen years in the South Dakota Legislature, Senator Deb Peters announced her resignation to take a job with the state's healthcare association. Two things about that story were particularly galling: Peters did not make her decision public until after starting her new role, and just a few weeks previously she stood for and won a seat in the South Dakota House. It turns out, as I

Independent voters make up over 40 percent of registered voters in the United States today, while fewer than 30 percent are either registered Republicans or Democrats, and these voters will be the key to winning in swing districts without a partisan stronghold. RealClearPolitics With only days left before the midterm elections, the New York Times recently introduced its readers to Kristen Donnelly, 35, an educated, affluent, suburban businesswoman living in Pennsylvania’s closely contested fir

Amid all the divisive ugliness inside the Beltway, here is some good news: 2018 may well be the best year in a half century for election reform. Today’s narrative laments a crumbling democracy, alienated voters, and a political culture spiraling ever downward. While true, that narrative is incomplete. It misses the remarkable energy building across many states to confront these problems, shore up our democracy, and rebuild our political culture. Nowhere is that energy more apparent than in the