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Momentum continues to build for broad systemic changes to how US citizens elect their public officials. Reforms like ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries are growing in popularity as voters look to solutions to make the political process fairer and voter-centric. With 2020 near its end, political reformers are looking toward the future, and what proposals are working and what proposals need more attention. One proposal that is getting more attention from some reformers is proportiona

This is an independent commentary. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is tasked with re-imagining the future. Drive-in movies, flu shots. Take out and to go orders. Outdoor weddings and family gatherings. Christmas celebrations might be full of “bubbles,” Zoom calls and FaceTime visits. Ocean Beach continued its Christmas tree in the sand happening, but needed to redo its annual parade of floats, people, pets and cars in a “reverse para

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

Earlier this fall, Occidental College junior Luigi Maruani laid in bed anxious and angry, swiping through his phone. His 75-year-old father had just contracted the coronavirus, and Maruani felt the federal government wasn’t responding to the pandemic with enough urgency. A post in a Facebook group for students living off-campus caught his eye. “We’ve heard some rumblings and want to be clear about infections within our small community,” senior Avani Johnson wrote. “If you end up testing positi

Voters are frustrated with the state of US politics. They want a fairer system that empowers them to elect representatives who will put their interests above those of private political parties and special interests. It is becoming much more apparent to citizens that long-term solutions to the nation’s biggest problems can’t be found until we fix how voters elect public officials. The good news is that there is a growing coalition of reformers who understand the most critical problems that keep

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us This year has been defined by uncertainty — in homes, businesses, schools, and communities across the state. But one constant, keeping our economy and society afloat, has clearly emerged: technology. As lawmakers get back to work after a heated campaign cycle, they should recognize the value of technology platforms at the community level, embrace the role they will no doubt continue to play in our economic recovery, an

Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on AllSides, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author. ‍ It is deeply frustrating for many Democrats that Dianne Feinstein and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are members of the same political party. Most Republicans are equally unhappy that they are forced to count both Mitt Romney and Donald Trump, Jr. within their ranks. Such is life in a two-party system, where both sides must deal with internal tensions in order to win election

If $800 million wasn’t a sufficiently appetizing carrot to get his audience to buy more motels, Gov. Gavin Newsom could dangle a more spiritual enticement: less time burning in the afterlife. At the California State Association of Counties’ annual conference in mid-November, more than 200 county supervisors and other officials awaited answers via Zoom for how the governor was planning to ward off all manners of local government armageddon — pestilence, wildfires, budget deficits. When asked ab

This is an independent commentary. Want to write one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us Over the course of 2020, public health, racial equity and authentic placemaking have surfaced as key issues in the San Diego-Tijuana region and across the country, as the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide protests have taken center stage. To provide San Diego-Tijuana civic planning and development professionals a blueprint for moving forward equitably and knowledgeably, the San Diego-Tijuana District of

The mainstream political narrative would have people believe that Americans are more deeply entrenching themselves under the banner of the Republican or Democratic Party as the divide between the parties continues to widen.Yet, a closer look at registration trends shows a different story. The Open Primaries Education Fund (OPEF) released a new report Monday titled, “The Next Great Migration: The Rise of Independent Voters.” Its findings show that in nearly every state that registers voters by