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The following blog is based on a new FairVote report on ranked choice voting elections in 2018In the first half of 2018, nearly half a million voters ranked their choices in elections for the most important offices in their communities. Voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico elected their first full-time mayor, voters in San Francisco elected their mayor in a hotly-contested special, and voters in Maine ranked their choices in state and congressional primary elections – and then convincingly upheld rank

I was following the story of the boys, the Thai soccer team and their coach, who were trapped in Tham Luang Cave in Thailand.  When I passed a newsstand on Monday night and saw that four were rescued, I choked up for a second. There were still eight more and the coach to go. Scores of divers traveled to the cave from around the world to help with the effort and a Thai Navy Seal died trying to chart an escape route through the floodwaters that filled the mile and a half of treacherous cave pathwa

On June 18, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the “gerrymander” case. In Gill v. Whitford, 2018 U.S. LEXIS 3692, 138 S. Ct. 1916, 2018 WL 3013807, Democratic Party members claimed that their rights were violated because there was a gap between the percentage of votes the Party secured in statewide elections and the number of legislators it was able to elect. The disparity was attributed to the work of partisans who drew district lines custom made to maintain Republican control of the legislature.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh now proceeds to his confirmation hearing as President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court and the possible replacement for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Advocacy groups were a step ahead of the mainstream media in their prepared and pre-titled digital political ads. Biased, partisan bios were conjured for each judge on the short list of possible nominees as well as the narrative warnings. Ad cash and domain names were secured well in advance of an announcement. N

A thrilling victory by a young insurgent candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, against a 20-year incumbent and party boss, US Rep. Joseph Crowley, in the June 26 New York primary seems to be reverberating over state and national politics. Pundits are posing the question of whether a national anti-establishment wave within Democratic Party politics is in the making. Many activists -- myself among them -- hope so, but don't shout too soon. Remember how in 2004 a young upstart, newly-elected senat

Over the next century San Diego’s population will double to 3 million in the city and 7 million in the county. How will all these people — our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren — enjoy our most sacred natural resource — our waterfronts — if we continue to wall them off from public access? San Diego Bay is now almost completely inaccessible. Think about it: where can you dangle your feet in the bay? Mission Bay is rapidly following suit. California’s tidelands are legally protec

The odds are stacked dramatically in your favor that your child does not have Jordan’s Syndrome. The exception to that is if your child has unexplained developmental disabilities. And if your child has developmental disabilities, you would like her to be diagnosed with Jordan’s Syndrome. Because that would put Joe Lang on your team. A Determined Father Joe Lang has the "Father of the Year" award nailed down. Frankly, he probably has little credible competition for Lifetime Achievement Award f

DENVER, CO. - The state of Colorado's first open primary since the reform passed in 2016 was a massive success for independent voters and the state's county clerks. The Associated Press reports that of the 293,153 ballots cast by unaffiliated voters in the primary this year, only 2.4 percent of the ballots were rejected as invalid because the voter cast one for both the Republican and the Democratic Party's primary. The result stunned state officials, who expected a higher number of rejected b

I miss Anthony Kennedy already. Other people have written eloquently about Kennedy’s contributions to the Supreme Court. After the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor (whom I miss, too), Kennedy became the swing vote in case after case. When a seminal case was argued before the high court, Kennedy was the justice who had to be persuaded. When a 5-4 decision came down, Kennedy was usually that crucial fifth vote. Sometimes he voted with the more liberal wing of the court; sometimes he voted with t

Democracy advocates recently celebrated a victory in Maine, where voters used ranked-choice voting in their statewide primaries — the first state ever to do so. In that election, voters also approved a referendum to keep the ranked-choice system for future elections. They will use it this November in the elections for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.ALSO READ: Independents Made the Difference in Maine’s Ranked Choice VotingAdvocates say this method of voting opens up the system to third parties and i