Search query: iowa

Mayors of big cities across the country are coming out in support of ranked choice voting (RCV). RCV is currently used in 46 U.S. cities, including the most populous cities in seven states.

On the second anniversary of Federal Correctional Officer Blake Schwarz’s death by suicide, an Iowa congresswoman has reintroduced a significant bill aimed at combating the ongoing mental health crisis among correctional officers.

Last week, the national election reform group Open Primaries held a Zoom conversation with former Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd to discuss voters' growing mistrust in American institutions. It was part of the group's ongoing Primary Buzz Discussion Series. 

The Connecticut General Assembly’s Government Administration and Elections (GAE) Committee held a public hearing Monday on SB 1536, a bill to implement Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in Connecticut.

Throughout American history, political movements have come and gone. Many of these movements have been reactionary, established after elections, events, and shifts in policies and politics. Some began in direct response to other movements, cropping up on the left or the right, often coming back full circle.

In discussions with an elderly voter in Colorado about Proposition 131, the unsuccessful 2024 ballot measure to create a nonpartisan primary with ranked choice voting (RCV), in the general election, we learned something important. This individual had voted against Proposition 131, casting his mail ballot on the day he received it. A week later, he received a campaign ad mailer that Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor had endorsed Proposition 131, which may have influenced his decision.

Democrats are taking stock. Some are arguing for a major overhaul in light of growing defections of working-class, Black, and Latino voters. Others want to stay the course. Some want to work with Trump when possible while others advocate for a program of permanent resistance.

Look up oligarch in a dictionary and you may find it defined as “someone who is extremely rich and powerful, especially a person from Russia who became rich after the end of the former Soviet Union.” Oligarchy is defined as “government by a small group of very powerful people.”

January 21, 2025, marked the 15th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a decision that opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections. Since that ruling, super PACs and outside spending have skyrocketed, and the voices of everyday voters have been drowned out by wealthy donors and corporate interests. The impact of Citizens United is clear: the political system is increasingly controlled by the rich, while ordinary voters are left behind.

In late 2024, the Herbert Institute at Utah Valley University released two reports on Utah’s ranked choice voting (RCV) pilot program. In the reports, Professors Alan Parry and John Kidd and co-authors Michael Erickson and Addison Stott capture the high level of support for RCV among Utah voters, as well as the strong foundation that RCV has in mathematics.