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The state of our Union is both hopeful and broken, strong and fragile. By our very nature, Americans lean toward optimism. Our pioneering history drives us toward problem solving; our go-to strategies aim for forward progress. Our fierce independence feeds our demands for individual rights and liberties. We derive strength from our Constitutional intentions and protections. These values and qualities inspire the world and shape our expectations for fairness and justice. At the same time, Ameri

The state of our Union is both hopeful and broken, strong and fragile. By our very nature, Americans lean toward optimism. Our pioneering history drives us toward problem solving; our go-to strategies aim for forward progress. Our fierce independence feeds our demands for individual rights and liberties. We derive strength from our Constitutional intentions and protections. These values and qualities inspire the world and shape our expectations for fairness and justice. At the same time, Ameri

This column was supposed to be a victory lap of sorts. The NH House Election Law Committee met on February 13, to deliberate about and vote on HB 728, a bill to implement ranked choice voting (“RCV”) in New Hampshire. It offers staggered implementation, starting in 2020 with the first-in-the-nation NH presidential primary. We thought we had the votes for it to pass favorably out-of-committee to the House floor (though we knew it would be close), and we were anxious to move to the next step! The

A new bill was introduced in the New Hampshire legislature that would implement ranked choice voting in the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primaries. However, the New Hampshire House Election Law Committee voted Wednesday to hold off on a vote for a year, giving policymakers more time to study the proposal. The bill, HB 728, is not dead. However, the committee's decision does mean that ranked choice voting will likely not be used in the 2020 New Hampshire primaries. “Unfortunately, t

There is a dirty word in American politics, worse than “crook,” more terrible than “philanderer,” and more despicable than “liar.” The word is “spoiler.” A crook, a philanderer, and a liar sully the character of an office, or enrich themselves at the public trough, or violate the public trust. These offenses are punishable, sometimes forgivable. But “spoiler” is the Scarlet Letter. The perpetrator has committed a special crime, one that changes the course of events as they were meant to be. The

Over the past year or so there has been quite a bit of 'jawboning' over the mayor's dream to create a CCA aka Community Choice Aggregation to address the issue of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere by only powering our homes and businesses with renewable energy. Our current energy provider, SDG&E, is reportedly now using renewables for as much as 45% of the energy supplied to their marketplace and the state has mandated that to be 100% by the year 2045, or just ten years later than the city's Clima

The 2020 Democratic field is already larger than it was in 2008. So far, 11 Democrats have launched or formally announced their intentions to launch a presidential bid, and more are expected in the coming weeks and months. One of the biggest names many are still waiting on, however, is US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Is Bernie 2020 going to happen? The answer could come very soon. Here are some things to look at: 1. Sanders and Biden Lead in the Polls Interesting enough, the two candidates w

San Diego, Calif.- IVN has learned communities will likely be seeing a budget squeeze due to historically high overtime increases for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, according to the mid-year budget report by the city's independent budget analyst. The report states that for fiscal year 2018, the fire-rescue department was $12.6 million over budget, a dramatic jump from 2017, when it was $2.4 million over budget. Monica Munoz with the San Diego Fire-Rescue department sent IVN the followin

As the new year begins, state legislatures around the country are convening to tackle the issues of the day. After seeing pro-democracy measures surge on the ballot in the 2018 midterms, it’s no surprise that efforts to address our broken elections continue to dominate discussion among the public and in the halls of power. Coming off of its historic first statewide implementation in Maine, ranked choice voting (RCV) has been a key part of this conversation in state legislatures from Massachuset

Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal is a journalist, author, and former medical practitioner. She was kind enough to join Independent Voting’s Vice President for National Development, Cathy Stewart, for her Politics for the People Book Club in December to discuss her book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. Dr. Rosenthal’s expansive experience in the medical field — both as a doctor and as New York Times journalist and Editor-in-Chief at Kaiser Health New