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A bill designed to close Virginia's primary elections failed Monday. SB821 sponsored by Del. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) was voted down in the Senate with 11 voting in favor and 29 opposed. SB821 would have taken away the right of all voters to participate in Virginia's taxpayer funded primary leaving the Democratic and Republican parties to decide who would be able to participate. SB821 is the latest in an ongoing series of attempts to close primary elections across the country. Efforts to und

A wave of bills aimed at reforming primary elections in four states were introduced last month. Legislators in Idaho, New Mexico, Illinois, and Virginia are looking to do away with their state’s partisan primary in favor of a nonpartisan top-two system. A top-two primary is where all candidates, regardless of party affiliation appear on the same primary ballot and the top-two vote-getters advance to the general election in November. Idaho Idaho State Senator Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, explained

Ever since Donald Trump won the presidential election, the Democratic Party and its allies have had a renewed appreciation for the “one person, one vote” principle established in the landmark 1964 Supreme Court case, Reynolds v. Sims. Even notable political scholars like Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig, who is not really a friend of the DNC, is wondering out loud why the Democratic Party doesn’t just file a lawsuit against the Electoral College for violating this clear constitutional standard

The Independent Voter Project’s 2016 Business and Leadership Policy Conference, an annual event with legislators, industry professionals, and policy experts, kicked off Monday with Idaho Governor Butch Otter (R) and Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Milken institute’s California Center, discussing specifically the economy.While Otter spoke of his own experiences in Idaho and Klowden discussed the current economic state and potential outlook for California, both had a common message: Educa

Why stick with third party and independent candidates in November, if Clinton and Trump have a combined 80% of the electorate in all major polls? In an election season that is anything but usual, one trend is holding up: outside campaigns are losing support in the last months of the race. The campaigns of Libertarian candidate Gov. Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, independent candidate Dr. Lynn S. Kahn, and Veterans Party candidate Chris Keniston responded to a short question

Green Party ballot access campaigns have had more success in 2016 than ever before, according to Rick Lass, Ballot Access Coordinator for the Jill Stein campaign. You can check out the Greens' infographic to see states turn green as each state's required signatures are submitted. So far, 43 states are green. Lass is sure that Greens will make it onto 44 state ballots, plus Washington, D.C. The only state so far, with no chance of turning green is South Dakota. Greens failed to gain ballot acce

© 2016 by Hedrick Smith. Republished with permission from the author. Smith is the executive editor of reclaimtheamericandream.org. WASHINGTON — In this tumultuous election year, little attention has focused on the groundswell of support for political reform across grass-roots America. Beyond Bernie Sanders’s call for a political revolution, a broad array of state-level citizen movements are pressing for reforms against Citizens United, gerrymandering and campaign megadonors to give average vot

As with past election cycles, third party and independent candidates – as well as initiatives aimed at reducing the power of the two major parties – are struggling to achieve access to general election ballots. In some cases, this is the result of general apathy toward specific parties, candidates, or reforms. In other cases, however, their exclusion from the ballot stems from a variety of causes, including minor technicalities, official ineptitude, constitutionally dubious legal barriers, and,

Green Party signature coordinators across the country are reporting an influx of Bernie Sanders supporters to the Greens' campaign. How far the new momentum will take the party in the 2016 election is yet to be seen. The first order of business is to get the Greens recognized on state ballots, or at least to get Jill Stein, the presumptive presidential nominee, recognized as an independent presidential candidate. As of August 1 Several ballot access deadlines hit this week. In addition to the

To date, seventeen Democratic State Conventions, one legislative district convention, and one county convention have voted to either abolish or reform superdelegates. Following frustration voiced by Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Maine was the first state to pass a resolution at their convention in early May, followed closely by Alaska.Delegates Awarded to Democratic Candidates | InsideGov Since then, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, We