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National Election Reform Groups, the Independent Voter Project and FairVote, are advocating for a primary that advances the “top-four” candidates instead of just two. The groups believe doubling the choices by advancing four candidates out of the primary, allowing write-in candidates, and enacting ranked choice voting to give voters more power, avoids vote-splitting, and ensures majority rule, is the best-case scenario for voters and voters rights. In addition to this effort, the National Asso

A wise man once said, “Those who make the rules, rule.” Today, we wonder whether the current rules of voting and governing can deliver any kind of progress. An important rules question was on the ballot in Maine yesterday and the voters delivered a clear message. After a hard-fought campaign against a brutal opposition, the voters passed Question 1 by a margin of 55% to 45%. This was a mass veto of the state legislature’s attempt to turn back the will of the voters. In 2016, Maine voters enact

It's been a long, bumpy road for ranked choice advocates in Maine. State politicians have pulled out all the stops to overturn the voter-approved election reform, but Maine voters sent them a strong message Tuesday: Respect our vote. Voters used RCV to select party nominees in the Republican and Democratic primaries, and all voted on Question 1: the people's veto to overturn a bill passed by state policymakers to delay and repeal RCV. It was early in the hours of Wednesday morning when the fat

Maine Gov. Paul LePage opposes ranked choice voting so much that he says he "probably" won't certify Tuesday's election results. Every Mainer who voted in Tuesday's primary made history. They were the first voters to cast ranked choice voting ballots for state, US House, and US Senate elections in the US. LePage, though, thinks ranked choice voting is "the most horrific thing in the world." So much so that he says he is willing to not certify the results until "the courts decide." https://twi

Partisan gerrymandering. Money in politics. The Electoral College. Undue restrictions on who votes and how we vote. Every contentious election issue discussed today was either inherited from 18th-century England or came out of a compromise in our democracy’s incubation when there were few voters and

In a political world dominated by voices from the Republican and Democratic parties, the Robert J. Dole Institute at the University of Kansas stepped outside of the partisan narrative with its Spring Semester discussion group focusing on the “Rise of the Independents.” By self-identification, independent voters currently make up 45 percent of the electorate. Yet, the two parties dominate the media narrative, our elections, our legislatures, and even our courtrooms. But change could be on the w

In his weekly public address Wednesday, Maine Governor Paul LePage took time to talk about the upcoming June 12 primary elections, specifically about his objection to Clean Elections funding and -- interestingly enough -- his support for minority rule. "Another issue to consider for next Tuesday is the Ranked Choice Voting referendum. This system tries to ensure that office-holders are elected with a majority, meaning 50-percent-plus-one-vote, in races with three or more candidates. Ranked Choi

Human Rights Watch has condemned the U.S. policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, following a denouncement of the policy by the U.N. human rights office Tuesday. In a press briefing note from the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations offered this strongly worded rebuke: "The practice of separating families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child. While the r

Maine independent US Senator Angus King recently broke his silence on Question 1, the ballot measure that protects ranked choice voting in Maine. He says he is voting for it, adding that state politicians should respect the will of the people “A high number of voters said this is something they want," King says, "and I don’t like the idea that we essentially voided what the voters said.” King also says he likes the fundamental components of ranked choice voting. It offers an instant runoff: "A

The Primary served as a nice appetizer for what will surely be a remarkable and critically important main course in November. Statewide there was not a "blue wave" as promised by Democrats. Independents, now the second largest voting bloc in California, are certainly going to play a huge role in determining the statewide races. For San Diego, here's what we definitively know following last night's election: DISTRICT ATTORNEY Summer Stephan is the next District Attorney. Voters resoundingly a