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America is waiting for the drama of the 2020 presidential election to play itself out. Votes are still being counted. Lawsuits have and will continue to be filed. The heated divide between the parties is on full display while US voters desperately want politicians to put the needs of the country ahead of the gain-seeking interests of their parties. The biggest story lost in the chaos are the movements to give voters a fairer, more accountable process that empowers all voters and leads to more

Votes are still being counted in several states across the country. Unlike the year 2000, Florida is not in the spotlight. However, Florida should be highlighted as the state where a proposed state constitutional amendment received 57% of the vote but will not be adopted. Amendment 3 proposed the implementation of nonpartisan top-two open primaries to reform the current closed primary system in Florida. A clear majority of Florida voters want to get rid of our closed primaries; yet, since 2006,

This is the first in a two-part series on Gompers Preparatory Academy in Southeastern San Diego. Read the second installment here. Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in the boardroom when San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education authorized the conversion of Gompers Middle School to an independent charter school. This was a turbulent time, with Alan Bersin as superintendent, a teachers union in revolt and a dysfunctional school board. In this midst of this tumult ca

Virginia became the first state in the South to approve a bipartisan redistricting commission to end the practice of partisan gerrymandering Tuesday after 66% of voters approved Amendment 1. The reform comes just in time for 2021 redistricting after the decennial census. "Today is historic," stated FairMapsVA Executive Director Brian Cannon and the campaign's co-chairs, Wyatt Durrette and Bobby Vassar. "Six years ago, our parent organization, OneVirginia2021, embarked on a mission to reform the

Election officials in California say they aren’t expecting voter intimidation at polling places, but they’re coordinating with sheriffs and police chiefs in case someone with a badge needs to step in pronto. Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent a bulletin to law enforcement officials Thursday reminding them that voter intimidation and election interference is against the law. He laid out rules about what poll watchers can and can’t do. Eighty-eight percent of Californians expect violence after

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ It's often hard to see, but much more is at stake Tuesday than the presidency and control of Congress. Voters get to shape public policy by approving or rejecting more than 100 statewide ballot measures and dozens more local proposals — and this exercise in direct democracy includes plenty of ideas for bettering American democracy itself. More than a score of m

Editor's Note: This opinion piece originally appeared in The Hill, and has been republished on IVN with permission from the author. ‍ Polling indicates Joe Biden and the Democrats will win big. However, Democrats are falling short of the edge they need in early voting to offset the Republicans’ anticipated big edge in Election Day voting in three of four battleground states where data is available. If pollsters adjusted to fix 2016 mistakes, the RealClearPolitics average in each state shows B

Joe Biden, if he wins the presidency, has promised to create a bipartisan commission to recommend changes to the “out of whack” American court system. The commission’s prime focus will almost certainly be the Supreme Court, which to Democrats is about as out of whack as it can get. The commission will have no shortage of reform proposals from which to choose, from expanding the number of justices to requiring super majorities for certain cases to term limits. Although some also have suggested

Judicial review does not appear in the Constitution. As former Justice Antonin Scalia admitted, “The Constitution of the United States nowhere says that the Supreme Court shall be the last word on what the Constitution means…"

Her son’s third birthday party and his preschool field trip, those are the SeaWorld memories Anna M. holds dear. As a season passholder, she gushed about how fortunate children in San Diego are to get exposure to animals up close between the Zoo and SeaWorld. “They aren’t just reading about them in a book or watching them on TV. My son has seen a real-life manatee. I didn’t know what a manatee was at his age!” said Anna, who preferred not to disclose her full name to protect her privacy. The c