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Partisan machinations have increasingly shaken the faith in the integrity of the election process. Election deniers were just the start, but things have escalated to the point where some election administrators – loyal to their party – have refused to certify election results for political reasons.

Editor's note: This op-ed originally published on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. Johnson is executive director of the Election Reformers Network. In recent months, we’ve gotten a crash course in the ways that our election systems are now dangerously vulnerable to partisan interference and disorder. Numerous candidates for secretary of state deny the results of the 2020 election, including several who are, or likely will be, their party’s nominee.

Editor's Note: The pieces below feature two sides to the debate on term limits from Jonathan Simpson and Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson. These perspectives originally published on Divided We Fall and have been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Term Limits: Not a Panacea, but Close Enough By Jonathan Simpson – Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Americans for Congressional Term Limits Americans’ dissatisfaction with their government is no secret. While opinions of presidentia

Thank you to everyone who attended our 2021 Virtual Summit on December 10. We celebrated tremendous milestones this year and set the stage for an exciting 2022 election cycle. I am pleased to announce that our networking series Reformers Unite! will resume on January 7 for members only. We will also be announcing new member benefits in 2022. If you are not a member yet, consider joining today! We will begin our masterclass, “Reformers Lead,” on January 21. This monthly series is tailored to th

The Lansing City Council agreed in July to put a question on the November ballot that would make the switch to ranked choice voting. However, now the same council members that said residents could decide for themselves how elections are conducted in the city may pull the initiative. Why? Well, the council received a letter from Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater, who argued that the state’s constitution would need to be amended to allow ranked choice voting. The clerk of Ingham County,

‍ The way the US political system operates is tearing the country apart. Voters are forced to choose between two deeply polarizing narratives, and the further the two sides move apart, the more damage is being done to the country at-large. The problem of polarization in the US is not just affecting the nation’s politics. It also affects its social structure and economy, and businesses are now finding themselves caught in the middle of the political crossfire. It has been impossible, for ins

Editor's Note: This piece by Larry Diamond, Kevin Johnson, and Miles Rapoport originally published on The Hill, and has been republished with permission from the authors. ‍ Two secretaries of state were honored recently by the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. Maggie Toulouse Oliver, New Mexico’s Democratic secretary of state, and Kyle Ardoin, Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state, received the organization’s prestigious Patriot Award on behalf of all U.S election officials, in recog

‍ There are a number of nonpartisan reforms being proposed to address the myriad of deep systemic problems that ensure US elections primarily serve the private, gain-seeking interests of the Republican and Democratic Parties, instead of voters. There is no cure-all, no silver bullet. Change is going to require a comprehensive approach. However, one solution that easily has the most momentum behind it across the country is ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting, or the ability to rank ca

Ranked choice voting, or the ability to rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference instead of simply choosing one, has been adopted and/or implemented in 21 cities and 2 states, representing a total voting age population of over 9.2 million people.

Election integrity became a hot button issue during and in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. It is a phrase voters have heard a lot since November 3, as Donald Trump and many of his supporters claim widespread fraud took place that denied him re-election. Lawmakers and advocates who stood by the president and vowed to challenge the election results said they were doing it for the sake of the integrity of the electoral process. Challenging the legitimacy of elections is becoming more