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America needs a fair, affordable and cost-effective health care system. Until recently, the terms “universal health care” and “single-payer health care” didn’t surface quite as much in our conversation about how to fix the system once and for all. What is universal health care? If you’re like many voters, you may be wondering about the universal health care definition, why it’s often called “single-payer” and how such a system would change the status quo in the health and pharmaceutical industr

The California nonpartisan, top-two open primary has been the subject of much review by journalists and political pundits for the last 8 years. Almost universally, they view the initiative from a partisan perspective (e.g. Does this help Democrats or Republicans?), or for its effect on the ideological composition of the individual legislators (e.g. Are they more moderate?). For 8 years, the author of the top-two primary, the Independent Voter Project (a co-publisher of IVN), has said the pundit

The Hayes for Maine campaign recently filed a legal complaint against Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, alleging that his office is stifling the campaign's ability to distribute campaign material to voters and collect Clean Elections contributions on primary election day. At the same time, the secretary of state's office asserts that it is following the state's election laws. Newell Augur, legal counsel for Hayes for Maine, told me in a phone conversation that they were told "in no uncertain ter

Andrew Gumbel is grumbling over the potential consequences of the 2018 nonpartisan California primary election. He claims the nonpartisan primary is not working as intended. Perhaps he should have gotten in touch with the authors of Proposition 14 to see if it has met the goals they had in mind. There were three: * First, every voter should have an equal opportunity to vote for the candidates of their choice, regardless of the voter’s political preferences; * Second, elections should be more

In the latest episode of "Deconstructed," I talk with Republican California congressional candidate Michael Allman. Michael, running in California's 52nd Congressional District, is the first candidate to run for a national office on a platform of direct democracy. Michael and I deconstruct what exactly direct democracy would mean for the constituents of CA-52, and how his representation is designed to actively engage voters in his district. They also discuss the broader implications the direct

Ever heard of a primary election? That's where voters nominate candidates for the general election, right? Well in San Diego County, that's just not so. Did you know San Diego County elections contain a little known loophole called the "50%+1 rule" whereby a candidate who receives a majority of the vote in a low-turnout primary wins the election, outright. So, voters who show up in the November general election? Well, they're late to the party. The election was decided months before by the vot

On the Saturday a week before Mother's Day, I participated in the 34th Annual Harlem Mother's Day Parade. I was there on behalf of the Committee for Independent Community Action (CICA), founded by Dr. Lenora Fulani. The CICA consists of public housing residents, citywide activists, community organizers, and grassroots leaders fighting to protect public housing in New York City from the privatization that threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of public housing residents from their homes.

Neal Simon is running for United States Senate. The successful businessman is an affirmed independent, and he is competing in bright blue Maryland against incumbent Democratic Senator Ben Cardin as Cardin seeks a third term. Simon threw his hat in the ring at an interesting time in political history: Republicans are ‘retiring’ in droves, the House of Representatives appears broken, the Senate seems to be kind of holding it together, the White House is unpredictable, and the Supreme Court has Ma

T.J. O’Hara, the host of Deconstructed, is joined by Kyle Bailey, the campaign manager of both Maine’s ranked choice voting and Terry Hayes for Governor. The two discuss the history (and struggle) of ranked choice voting in Maine, the benefits of RCV, Maine’s history with independent and third party candidates, the difference between RCV and plurality voting, and more. Support IVN’s independent podcasts and video series by donated to our co-publisher: www.independentvoterproject.org/. Kyle Ba

There is something happening in Colorado -- something big. It's been a historic year already for independent candidates, and there is arguably no state in the nation where the independent revolution is burning brighter than Colorado. It was one of the first states to fully legalize marijuana (along with Washington state) -- something both major political parties have resisted for decades. Independent voters are the largest voting bloc, with nonpartisan registration surpassing the Republican a