Search query: ohio

Amid all the divisive ugliness inside the Beltway, here is some good news: 2018 may well be the best year in a half century for election reform. Today’s narrative laments a crumbling democracy, alienated voters, and a political culture spiraling ever downward. While true, that narrative is incomplete. It misses the remarkable energy building across many states to confront these problems, shore up our democracy, and rebuild our political culture. Nowhere is that energy more apparent than in the

As the inked dried on the new opioid fighting-bill, SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, tech leaders offered to pledge their support to help stop an opioid epidemic that killed more than 48,000 Americans in 2017. The law expands access to drug treatment and prevention programs across federal agencies and moves to block shipments of drugs such as opioids and the very dangerous fentanyl from entering the country. Google, for one, created a locator to mark 1,000 Walgreens locations on Googl

As the nation becomes increasingly polarized, the reality of politics becomes ever more obvious. Nothing illustrates that better than the recent circus (and subsequent side show) surrounding the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. Even before Kavanaugh was nominated, a number of Democratic senators stated they would vote against whomever President Trump nominated for the open Supreme Court seat. Twelve years ago, no controversy surrounded Kavanaugh’s appointment to the fed

The Green Party of Ohio is working hard to ensure its candidates will have ballot access in 2020 and 2022, or to make it onto general election ballots for the next four years, Green Party candidates will have to collect signatures to qualify for the ballot as independents. In order to satisfy Ohio's rules for third party ballot access, the Ohio Green Party's candidate for governor this year, Constance Gadell-Newton, a Columbus attorney, must win at least 3 percent of the vote in November, which

Since the Me Too movement began shedding light on discrimination and sexual harassment within the workplace, companies around the U.S. have taken notice and are cracking down on lewd behavior. Women across the country are speaking out against their assaulters and refusing to keep quiet. This has forced companies to re-evaluate their employees and enforce new regulations on how workers should act. Because of this, organizations are starting to improve their company culture and make the workplace

According to FBI statistics released this week, marijuana arrests in the United States actually increased to 659,700 in 2017 over 2016's total of 653,249. That's despite the fact that in 2017, the number of states that legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use reached a total of 29 (plus Washington DC). As 2016 came to a close, the biggest winner in the hotly contested election seemed to be marijuana legalization, which passed at the ballot box in eight different states, bringing th

I. The State of Self-Driving Car Technology and The Possibilities In the 1990 film, Total Recall (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone), the protagonist played by the now former governor of California hails a self-driving car with a humanoid, robotic attendant sitting where a human driver would. What makes the surreal scene eerily prophetic is how Schwarzenegger asks the AI cab driver questions like one might ask Alexa, Siri, or Google's voice assistant, and the "Johnny Cab" sasses

California is the fifth largest economy in the world and has the fifth highest tax rate in the United State. It would be reasonable to assume that those alone would be enough to merit a round of debates between candidates vying to become its governor. However, like many other things in California, that is not the case. With less than 45 days remaining before the election, California’s two gubernatorial candidates, Gavin Newsom (D) and John Cox (R), still haven’t agreed to a single televised deb

What are the main take-aways from the 2018 primary season from an election reform perspective? In summary, some good news, some problems, and some emerging solutions. The good news is that competition and participation both increased significantly in 2018, as more people ran, more people voted, and more primaries actually offered choice to voters. The number of candidates seeking office jumped by 30% compared with 2016, and the percent of primaries that were contested also rose significantly, p

A central element of this remarkable year in election reform has been the pivot of the anti-gerrymandering fight from the courts to the ballot boxes. As has been widely reported, five states vote this year on state constitutional amendments to block partisan gerrymandering and fundamentally change how redistricting is done, far more than in any other year. Ohio approved its amendment in May with 75% support; four others -- Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, and Utah -- will vote in November. Nearly