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Editor's note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ The coronavirus pandemic has already changed how millions of Americans will vote this year, and a new poll makes clear it's also going to change when they vote. Six in 10 Americans want to cast their ballots before Election Day, either in-person at an early voting location or after getting to a drop box or the post office to return an absentee envelope, accordin

With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, campaigns across the country are ramping up their activities the best they can in the final eight weeks of a pandemic-affected election. This includes several campaigns that look to expand the historic momentum behind nonpartisan election reform. Open Primaries hosted the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers’ second Spotlight of the year, which highlighted 9 reform efforts happening right now to ensure all voters have an equal and meaningful vote

This is an independent opinion. Want to respond? Write your own commentary! Email hoa@ivn.us. The California Common Sense Party is attempting to be officially recognized, so that it can participate in helping independent-minded candidates running for the state legislature this November. The COVID-19 virus shut down all signature-gathering operations in the state, so we had to stop short of the required 68,000 registrations. However, as of March 8, when we had to stop gathering registrations in

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ With fewer than a hundred days to the presidential election, almost half the states have now altered some normal laws or regulations to make casting a ballot easier and safer in light of the coronavirus. Most of the changes so far, but not all of them, are designed to promote voting by mail — the healthiest way to exercise the franchise this year, but a practic

Baltimore is a one-party city, so much so that it hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1967. Registered Democrats vastly outnumber any other party registration, having a tenfold advantage over the Republican Party. It's as blue as a city could get. The consequence of this is November elections are inconsequential. The winner of the closed Democratic mayoral primary, for instance, might as well be sworn in the next day, and he or she can win with a marginal share of the total registered voting po

In the midst of social turmoil and civil unrest, on top of an ongoing pandemic, the news didn’t spare much time to talk about 9 primary elections held Tuesday -- primaries that, according to vote at home advocates, prove absentee ballots work. Four states -- Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island -- postponed their primary elections to June 2 to allow voters an extended opportunity to request absentee ballots, while DC, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and South Dakota largely increased th

Neal Simon, the author of Contract to Unite America: Ten Reforms to Reclaim Our Republic, joined T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss the challenges of our current partisan political environment and how to address them. ‍ In 2018, Mr. Simon ran as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate for the State of Maryland. He polled well and even made it into a debate before political power and money overwhelmed his campaigned. After a strong debate performance, he describes how the future debate

In case you hadn’t heard, COVID-19 has disrupted the economy perhaps more than any other singular event in history. Here are three metrics to get a sense of the damage. 1. Goldman Sachs originally forecast a 24% contraction in United States GDP during the second quarter, then revised its calamitous projection up to 34%. That’s a worse contraction in productivity than the U.S. experienced over three years of the Great Depression from 1930 to 1933 (-29%). 2. U.S. Non-farm payrolls officially p

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on American life and the democratic process. Voters want a meaningful say in the 2020 elections, but they don’t want to risk their health to exercise their constitutionally-protected right to vote. In response, the vote-at-home movement has gained significant traction as reformers and elections officials consider the best methods and practices to keep voters safe while protecting their civil rights. ‍ What vote-at-home brings to the broad conversation

Richie is president and Daley a senior fellow at FairVote, a nonpartisan electoral reform group that promotes ranked-choice voting. This month Daley published "Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy" (Liveright). So much has changed in American life, and so quickly, that it's hard to believe it's been just four weeks since former Vice President Joe Biden shocked Sen. Bernie Sanders with a rout on Super Tuesday. A race that had been unsettled for months, seemingly bound for