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Like a lot of Missouri voters, I’m beyond angry at our recent divisive presidential election and scandal-plagued state legislature. It’s time to vent that anger at the real culprit: an election system rigged against the voters. If you’re like me, you have deeply held political principles, but right now you’d prefer if news about politics just went away. For the media and political parties, politics is just about putting people in boxes and keeping them there. As an African-American woman who

Getting elected as a third-party candidate is no easy feat in the United States. In fact, the deck is so stacked against alternative candidates — courtesy of gerrymandered voting districts that favor one of the major parties, ballot access laws that make it impossible for third parties to gain momentum with each passing election cycle, or public debates that only invite Democrats and Republicans to participate — that it is practically impossible. But the Libertarian Party has created a model t

Recording Votes: Fixing the Electoral College Our Electoral College (EC) is out of date. Powerful coalitions exist to push for its effective abolishment and a switch to a popular vote, but the support for this movement is not as strong as proponents had hoped. Constitutionally speaking, it will be easier to update the EC and improve it. In this section, I discuss three proposed methods for use of the EC: Winner-Take-All, District Plan, and Proportional Plan. Winner-Take-All method for the Elec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUveoI0tm04 Last week, MSNBC's Morning Joe criticized the Democratic leadership for not being accepting of candidates that do not toe an ideological line. Some rising candidates in the South are having trouble getting support from their own party. Here's the story. Bernie Sanders has come out in support for candidates running in local, state, and federal races across the country. However, some progressive groups and Democratic officials have lambasted him for s

Historically, Nebraska has long set itself apart from the rest of the country in the way its legislature is elected and functions. One state senator believes it should also be unique in the way it treats third parties and third party candidates in statewide elections. Nebraska’s nonpartisan unicameral system is the only one of its kind in the United States. Nebraska elects state lawmakers using a nonpartisan, top-two system that does not include party affiliation on the ballot, and all legislat

The city commission of Fargo, North Dakota is currently considering a proposal that would dump the choose-one voting method used in a majority of cities and states across the U.S. and adopt approval voting for city elections. Fargo has an opportunity to make history as the first jurisdiction in the nation to use approval voting. Here is a quick explanation of how approval voting works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db6Syys2fmE Video Credit: The Center for Election Science "People are seein

The last eight years have seen partisanship at its very best, or worst depending on your point of view. Every presidential election has been essentially the same: the two main candidates sling mud at each other. Biased media outlets pretend to be fair and balanced, while the alternative media posts the most outlandish of content, playing on the fears of the gullible. But this presidential election cycle has been the most unconventional in recent memory. This is more than typical whining over a

In August, just one month after the Democratic National Convention, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced the launch of Our Revolution, a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping his progressive movement alive and strong. Among its stated goals are “supporting a new generation of progressive leaders" and "empowering millions to fight for progressive change." To these ends, Our Revolution backed more than 100 candidates from the school board level to the U.S. Senate between August and Ele

The Mount Rushmore State did not pass nonpartisan primaries Tuesday night. South Dakota's Amendment V - Nonpartisan Elections didn't quite make the cut at 44.51% to 55.49%. Amendment V would have enacted a similar primary system as the one currently used for Nebraska legislative races -- all voters and candidates would participate on a single ballot and the top-two vote getters would move on to the general election in November, regardless of party affiliations. The amendment would have removed

Raise your hand if you think that the president of the United States should be elected by the popular vote. Ah, it looks like most of you do. Hands down and know that you’re not alone. In fact, poll after poll, for quite some time, has shown that most Americans would like to replace the Electoral College delegate system with the popular vote – one person, one vote and the candidate with the most votes wins. Gallup has asked the question since 1944, and a majority has always supported an end to