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It has become clear that there is not even close to the 2/3 majority needed in the Senate to vote to convict. While the House vote to impeach helped the Democrats shape the post capitol incursion, post inaugural narrative, it has left the Democratic leadership “all dressed up...

US voters and reform practitioners had an opportunity over the weekend to wrap up 2020 celebrating the success of historic proposals for better elections and discuss future endeavors to give the American people a fairer, more empowering, and more accountable political process. Leaders in the nonpartisan reform space gathered together Friday and Saturday for the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers’ virtual conference, “Winning Reforms: Wrap Up & Gear Up for 2021.” The event featured p

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ Next year's redistricting landscape is, at best, a mixed bag for good-governance advocates. Although the mapmaking process has become fairer and less politicized in a handful of states over the past decade, partisan gerrymandering will still have a profound impact on representation across most of the country. Democrats had high hopes of taking back enough power

The biggest overlooked story from this election is how reformers made history, once again. From Virginia to California, voters sent a message that they want less hyper-partisanship, greater voter choice and better representation. To celebrate our accomplishments and dive deep into how we move forward in the coming years, we’re hosting a two-day December Spotlight on Friday, December 11, and Saturday, December 12. The Zoom event will feature workshops, briefings, and group discussions, hosted

America is waiting for the drama of the 2020 presidential election to play itself out. Votes are still being counted. Lawsuits have and will continue to be filed. The heated divide between the parties is on full display while US voters desperately want politicians to put the needs of the country ahead of the gain-seeking interests of their parties. The biggest story lost in the chaos are the movements to give voters a fairer, more accountable process that empowers all voters and leads to more

Virginia became the first state in the South to approve a bipartisan redistricting commission to end the practice of partisan gerrymandering Tuesday after 66% of voters approved Amendment 1. The reform comes just in time for 2021 redistricting after the decennial census. "Today is historic," stated FairMapsVA Executive Director Brian Cannon and the campaign's co-chairs, Wyatt Durrette and Bobby Vassar. "Six years ago, our parent organization, OneVirginia2021, embarked on a mission to reform the

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ It's often hard to see, but much more is at stake Tuesday than the presidency and control of Congress. Voters get to shape public policy by approving or rejecting more than 100 statewide ballot measures and dozens more local proposals — and this exercise in direct democracy includes plenty of ideas for bettering American democracy itself. More than a score of m

Joe Biden, if he wins the presidency, has promised to create a bipartisan commission to recommend changes to the “out of whack” American court system. The commission’s prime focus will almost certainly be the Supreme Court, which to Democrats is about as out of whack as it can get. The commission will have no shortage of reform proposals from which to choose, from expanding the number of justices to requiring super majorities for certain cases to term limits. Although some also have suggested

Judicial review does not appear in the Constitution. As former Justice Antonin Scalia admitted, “The Constitution of the United States nowhere says that the Supreme Court shall be the last word on what the Constitution means…"

The democracy reform movement is having a moment right now. There are campaigns all across the country fighting gerrymandering, corruption, voter suppression, and plurality voting. Because of this, we constantly get asked, “Who are you? And why are you advocating for approval voting instead of [insert preferred reform here]?” As a relatively new organization in the reform space, we thought it was time that we re-introduce ourselves to you. We are The Center for Election Science, and here are t