Search query: new york

The corruption of American politics is deep and stifling and it is producing levels of alienation and antagonism that are frightening.

Last week, we asked the IVN Facebook audience to tell us who they would be willing to support in the 2020 presidential election. The survey, which represents the views individual members of our audience, was taken by over 1,100 people between Wednesday, August 28, through Sunday, September 1. Survey takers were allowed to choose as many candidates as they wanted -- indicating not just their top choice but who else they would be willing to support in an approval voting style. Here are 5 importan

New York City voters could soon adopt a fairer, more empowering, and more representative voting method in November, while other states look to join Maine in making history with ranked choice voting in 2020. In this episode of "Toppling the Duopoly"  FairVote President and CEO Rob Richie and I discuss the explosive popularity of ranked choice voting, what it means for voters in areas it is currently being used, and all the places it will either soon be implemented or passed. This includes the B

When a Facebook post launched a mass movement to stop self-serving legislators from drawing their own districts in Michigan in 2018, organizers knew they would face stiff opposition from incumbents benefitting from the status quo. What they didn’t expect was a campaign against more competitive elections backed by an organization allegedly dedicated to competition, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. The same year the Missouri Chamber of Commerce funded the campaign against the Clean Missouri Act,

Political insiders know what more and more voters are finally waking up to: the political “game” is rigged by both sides. From “member communications,” to gerrymandering, to systematic attempts to keep anyone who doesn’t toe the party-line from participating in elections, there is a reason voters “don’t matter” to the political class. But voters are waking up. In New York City, over 8 million residents could soon adopt ranked choice voting to reduce the “spoiler” effect for independent candid

There is one important truth about the state of US politics, and that is an increasing number of Americans understand that the system is rigged to put the interests of two private political parties and special interests first. The political establishment knows it. The media knows it. But, they don’t want the people to know it. They don’t want people to know that there are literally hundreds of organizations across the country working to unrig our political duopoly. They don’t want you to kno

Referencing events in El Paso and Dayton a week ago, the editors of The Lives of Guns, commented via Politico, “The two mass shootings this weekend have inflamed a gun-control debate that never seems to go away and never seems to get resolved.” This, of course, came only days after an incident at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Salinas, CA. I have long agreed with Forbes contributor Louis Woodhill, who said we have two parties:an evil party (the Democrats) and a stupid party (the Republicans), wh

Voter Choice Massachusetts is proposing a ballot initiative to implement ranked choice voting statewide. The group has filed language with the state attorney general ahead of Wednesday's deadline. Independent Voter News was at the forefront of the historic passage of ranked choice voting in Maine in 2016 and then again in 2018 when it was used for the first time in statewide and non-presidential federal primary elections and US House and US Senate general elections. It decided one of the two US

The Supreme Court’s decision to punt on partisan gerrymandering (RUCHO ET AL. v. COMMON CAUSE ET AL.) was discouraging for many in the electoral reform movement, but really should not have come as a surprise. The recent Court has given broad latitude to the Constitution’s granting to state legislatures control of state election law. And with this ruling, the Court made clear that the majority believes partisan gerrymandering - no matter how exclusionary, unfair, or anti-democratic - is a politic

Do you remember the old Schoolhouse Rock segment about how a bill becomes a law? The first step, according to the bill, is that constituents come together in support of new legislation, they call their congressman, and the congressman sponsors the bill. This is how we like to think the Republic works, whether we are talking about Congress or our state's legislature. Unfortunately, it isn't. Perhaps the most popular article passed around the nonpartisan reform community this week is a New York