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Arlington County, Virginia held its first ranked choice voting elections on Tuesday, June 20, during the Democratic primary for county board -- and many voters appear to approve of the new voting method. The Washington Post ran a headline two days ahead of the primary that read, "Virginia's first ranked choice voting election is vexing some Arlington voters." Yet, reports on election day show that the process was smooth for the majority of people. "Many Arlington Democratic voters spoke positi

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is on a roll. Advocates have added win after win at the ballot box across the US. When the voting method is put to a vote, citizens tend to overwhelmingly show support for its use. RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. The method of RCV broadly used in the US is called instant runoff voting, which uses an automatic runoff system based off voters' preferences if no candidate gets over 50% of first choice selections without the added expense of a

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ In 2020, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated more than $400 million to state and local governments to boost election administration funding. Since then, more than a dozen states, nearly all controlled by Republicans, have passed laws banning such private contributions. The funds, which were administered by a pair of nonprofit

It doesn’t seem like there is much these days that can unite Republicans and Democrats. However, one thing both parties have consistently agreed on is that nothing should threaten their grip on power. The current electoral process is designed to serve the interests of the dominant two parties and their members. If there is a reform that threatens to upset the apple cart, it will encounter resistance from those who have the most to lose from a fairer, more equitable process. This will include l

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished in its entirety on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ President Biden gave Ukraine top billing and said fighting inflation is the “top priority” during his State of the Union address Tuesday. But he also spoke at length about building a unity agenda and — very briefly — called for passage of election reform legislation. Three years ago, House Democrats first introduced the For the People Act, givin

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on the IVN Network with permission from the publisher. ‍ The massive elections reform bill known as the Freedom to Vote Act appears to be headed down the same path as its predecessor: blocked from Senate consideration by a Republican filibuster. Senate Democrats plan to bring the compromise bill to the floor Wednesday for a procedural vote that would allow lawmakers to begin debating the legislation. Howe

The Freedom to Vote Act, which would make a number of major changes to election law in the United States, is could come up for a vote soon. The bill includes a number of provisions, including a ban on partisan gerrymandering for congressional districts, new registration and early voting requirements for federal elections, and a federal voter ID provision. However, an underreported aspect of the Freedom to Vote Act (and largely uncontroversial) is that it would make the first Tuesday after the f

It’s January 2021, there’s a new president in D.C., a new Senate majority and a Democratic majority crowing about how voting rights is their top priority, even making the For the People Act their first bill (H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate). Cut to nine months later. It’s now September 2021. President Biden has spent more time focusing on an Afghanistan withdrawal than on pressuring Congress to pass voting rights legislation. The For the People Act has been passed by the House of Re

Thanks to the Constitutionally-mandated periodic census, the House of Representatives will look a lot different for the 2022 midterm elections, with some states gaining seats, some losing them, and partisan gerrymanders sprouting across the nation like sunflowers. As a result, Republicans, it seems certain, will be in a far better position to retake control of the chamber. The cause of this upheaval, the 2020 census, was the most controversial in recent memory. Ordinarily, this once-every-ten-y

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ A tallying error by the New York City Board of Elections threw the otherwise smoothly run ranked-choice voting primary into disarray on Tuesday. The Board of Elections accidentally included 135,000 test ballots in its unofficial vote tally, but has not yet counted the more than 124,000 absentee ballots. The erroneous results showed Kathryn Garcia within reach