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Californians will head to the polls earlier for primary elections. Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill Wednesday that moves all primary elections, including presidential primaries, from June to March. The bill, titled the "Prime Time Primary Act," originally only affected presidential primaries, but was later amended to include congressional and legislative primaries as well. State officials claim the change will increase the influence state voters have in presidential elections. According to R

T.J. is joined by two prominent election reform attorneys: Lawrence Lessig with Equal Citizens and Chad Peace with the Independent Voter Project. They discuss their latest reform lawsuits and projects, breaking down each case into its ‘elevator pitch’. Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. He is also the founder of Equal Citizens, which recently launched Equal Votes, a legal fight against the winner-take-all method of allocating Electoral V

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debate’s (CPD) 15 percent rule exacerbates the political divide in the US, leaves millions of voters unrepresented in presidential elections, and undermines fundamental democratic principles in order to protect the two-party duopoly. That is the argument the Independent Voter Project and 6 individual signatories make in an amicus curiae brief filed Friday in support of a legal challenge brought by Level the Playing Field (LPF) against the debate commiss

How the heck did it come so far, so fast? That's certainly what comedian and blogger Beppe Grillo must be saying, just 7 years after starting Italy's fastest growing political party, the  Five Star Movement. The groups co-founder, Gianroberto Casaleggio, passed away in 2016. What began as an idea in 2008 at Grillo's kitchen table, and took form in 2009, has since been labeled anti-establishment, anti-globalist, environmentalist, and populist. The movement's principles are based on direct dem

The Republicans are now saying that tax reform is their next legislative priority. Is tax reform likely to happen? Almost certainly not, as I wrote recently in my column for U.S. News & World Report. We need tax and fiscal reform; unfortunately the current political environment makes it nearly impossible. Tax reform is the kind of issue that has to be tackled from the center, with reasonable compromises gradually attracting more support on the left and right. The two parties cannot do that by t

In my experience speaking to Europeans and Canadians about our political system, they frequently demonstrate a lot of worry for us. Gone are the days of the usual cross-Atlantic holier-than-thou quipping and sniping. They’re just plain worried for us -- and, by extension, them. Europe, no doubt, has its own bag of problems, though they try not to admit it to us Yanks. But the vitriol and mutual partisan hatred that is the new normal in American politics sets us apart. A large majority of Republ

Competition is the American way. In business, you hear the following saying: “If we don’t take care of the customer, somebody else will.”

Competition is the American way. In business, you hear the following saying: “If we don’t take care of the customer, somebody else will.” As a nation, back to Teddy Roosevelt’s trust-busting and before, we’ve been well trained to distrust monopolies, or even situations where competition is limited to a handful of providers. We have about eight major airlines in the U.S., and that choice is often painful enough. But would we ever let our airlines merge such that there were just two? How about o

The news story that dominated the early part of the week was President Trump's decision to rescind President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive action. The reaction to it was broadly felt across the Internet and on social media. It is important to note that DACA is not dead yet. Congress has six months to act, something that IVN contributing editor Steve Peace says shouldn't be a problem, given its popularity. "If Congress can't pass a statutorily sound DACA with t

In a wide ranging interview with IVC President Chad Peace and IVN editor Jeff Powers, US Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif.) spoke on a number of subjects as he ended his August recess. Below are the quotes from the congressman on selected topics impacting voters. Listen to the full podcast above. The White House's DACA Decision "I think it's really unfortunate. It's cruel, it's counterproductive economically, and sends the wrong message about who we are as a country." "I think you'll f