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Michael O'Neil, U.S. Communications Manager for the Green Party, joins T.J. O’Hara, host of Deconstructed, to discuss the Party’s past, present, and future. Mr. O’Neil has over 15 years of political communications experience and has served the Green Party in a variety of capacities for the past 12 years, including roles as Assistant to the Campaign Manager for Dr. Jill Stein’s 2016 presidential campaign and co-manager of that campaign's Brooklyn, NY Office. He also performed significant roles fo

After more than a year of economic suffering that has left millions of Americans reeling from the devastating effects of unemployment, the end finally appears to be in sight. While the upward trends that we are experiencing are certainly promising, there is a misguided misconception that there are already enough quality jobs out there, and employees simply need to return to work. Despite the progress we’ve made, we certainly aren’t out of the woods yet, and it is important that lawmakers continu

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

Voters in New York City won't know who won Tuesday's hotly contested Democratic mayoral primary just yet. Voters went to the polls to rank for the first time their preferences in a large field of viable candidates. And, thanks to the implementation of ranked choice voting (RCV), getting only a plurality of support was not enough for any candidate to advance to November. Ahead of the primary election, a WNBC/Telemundo 47/POLITICO/Marist poll found that Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams led t

In a bipartisan vote, the Maine Legislature passed a bill Wednesday that implements a semi-open primary system, which will allow voters registered independent (32% of the registered electorate) to choose between a Republican or a Democratic primary ballot in future elections. “I am thrilled that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle joined me in supporting semi-open primaries,” said bill sponsor Senator Chloe Maxmin (D-Lincoln). “Enacting this common sense reform will align our democratic sy

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished with permission from the publisher. ‍ While much of the country's election reform legislation has been rife with partisanship, Vermont is bucking that trend. Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed into law on Monday a measure that will automatically send Vermont's 495,000 registered voters a mail-in ballot ahead of statewide general elections. The General Assembly approved the legislation on a bipartisan basis

Want to better understand how gerrymandering works while also competing for prizes? There is a competition going on until June 15 that calls on the American public to put their mapmaking skills to the test. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project launched the Great American Map Off on May 15. The group challenges any member of the public to draw congressional districts for 7 crucial states -- Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin -- as the redistricting proces

It is only May and already 2021 has been a monumental year for ranked choice voting. Not only is RCV being used for the first time in New York City, but 23 Utah cities have passed ordinances to use it in upcoming elections. FairVote, the nation’s preeminent advocate for ranked choice voting, reports that the addition of 23 Utah cities more than doubles the number of upcoming mayoral races that will use RCV, and includes Salt Lake City and its population of 200,000 residents. The cities voted s

We all know the system is broken. It’s rigged. It does not work. How do we know? Because our leaders are not producing solutions to the issues we care about. No one is listening, just talking past each other. But what if the system is working the way it was designed to work? What if politicians are operating very rationally and logically based on incentives of the political system in place? That is what many of the smartest observers of our dysfunctional mess of a political system think. So we

Editor's Note: This update originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Now that the Census Bureau has finally announced which states have gained or lost congressional seats, attention turns to the legislative bodies and commissions that will be drawing new maps for the next round of elections. We already know the delayed data release is having an impact on states' abilities to meet their own deadlines for drawing new maps. It's onl