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Let's imagine there are three voters all in the same district: Mr. Blue, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Green. * Mr. Blue is a registered Democrat, and his favorite candidate is also a Democrat, Candidate L – a liberal. His second preference is Candidate M – a moderate Democrat. * Mrs. White is an independent, non-affiliated voter, and her preferred candidate is Candidate I, who is not endorsed by any party and is funding his campaign on his own. Her second favorite candidate is candidate M – the same

In 2010, voters approved Proposition 14. This measure fundamentally changed California’s partisan primaries conducted under rules determined by private political parties into a nonpartisan system in which the purpose of the primary became a public one in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election. This change has empowered millions of California voters with a meaningful opportunity to affect the outcome of elections in California. Nonpartisan voters ar

On Friday, February 6, the Cook Political Report published an article on the impact the nonpartisan, top-two primary and independent redistricting have had on voter turnout. The author, Amy Walter, points out that with both reforms in place, voter turnout has not increased, and has in fact been on the decline. An article by Mark Barabak of the LA Times draws the same conclusion. These articles, however, assess California's primary without reference to the much bleaker situation occurring nation

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said on Wednesday that he will embrace calls from President Barack Obama to reclassify Internet service as a utility under Title II of the Telecommunication Act. The move has been criticized by some Republican lawmakers, who call it a "power grab" by the independent agency. One week after the midterm elections, the president called on federal regulators to protect a free and open Internet by reclassifying the Internet as a utility, arguing

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats successfully filibustered an appropriations bill that would fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security until September. The bill, passed by the U.S. House on January 14, includes provisions that threaten President Barack Obama's executive actions on deferred deportations for certain immigrants who are in the country illegally. A funding bill for DHS must pass by February 27 or agencies including the TSA, Secret Service, and Customs and Border Protection will par

On Thursday, January 29, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the case, Rubin v. Padilla (formally Rubin v. Bowen). Third parties in the state are challenging the constitutionality of the nonpartisan, top-two primary, claiming it places a severe burden on associational and voting rights guaranteed by the state and federal Constitutions. The three-judge panel maintained the trial court's ruling that such a burden does not exist. The ruling comes

On Monday, the Senate failed to reach cloture on the Keystone XL measure, signaling a long, bitter fight to come. With a 53-39 vote, cloture failed by 7 votes. The bitter fight was cut short on Thursday, however, when nine Democrats joined with every Republican to approve construction of the $8 billion project in a 62-36 vote. It is widely expected that once the measure is vetoed by President Obama, Senate Republicans would still need 4 votes to override the veto. Energy Committee Chair Lisa M

It may seem curious that a website could be accused of being a front for the Republican Party and conservative ideology in one article and then being Democrats and liberals hiding behind the “independent” label in another. For the IVN (Independent Voter Network) editorial team, it is not only a common occurrence, it is a daily occurrence. IVN is simply an open platform for independent authors to discuss the issues and topics they believe are important or should be important to voters in a civil

After the results of the 2014 midterm elections were in, IVN published an article suggesting that Vice President Joe Biden may have intentionally sabotaged independent Greg Orman's campaign in the Kansas U.S. Senate race by saying there was no doubt in his mind that Orman would caucus with Democrats. Biden essentially gave incumbent U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R) the soundbite he needed to vindicate his claim that Orman was really a Democrat disguised as an independent. It is the go-to strategy

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has submitted two new election reforms to the Kansas Legislature that are a direct response to the 2014 U.S. Senate race, where Republican incumbent Pat Roberts was almost defeated by independent Greg Orman. Public polling before the midterm elections suggest that all the statewide incumbents, including Kobach, were vulnerable -- something Kobach wants to remedy with new rules for candidate withdrawals and reinstating straight-ticket voting. In the 2014 U.