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Running for President as an Independent: How it Really Works
Have you ever wondered why, in the greatest democracy in the world, almost no one runs for President of the United States as an independent? The answer is that running as an independent is extremely difficult, if not impossible. That is why very few people have attempted it, and none have won in modern history.
12 May, 2025
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13 min read
In 3 States, Partisans Pick the Secretary of State Without Voter or Executive Input
In 47 US states, the secretary of state is a recognized statewide office, and in most of those states, voters get to decide who holds it. But in three 3 states — Maine, Tennessee, and New Hampshire — the legislature holds that power exclusively.
29 Apr, 2025
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7 min read
A Small-Town Reminder of What Democracy Can Still Be
In an age when democracy feels more like a battleground than a meeting of minds, something remarkable happened in my small New England town, Manchester-by-the-Sea.
21 Apr, 2025
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5 min read
Believe It or Not, There Is Still a 2024 Election That Hasn't Been Called
It may be hard to believe, but as of April 2025, there is still one election in the US from the last election cycle that has not been called: the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election between incumbent Democrat Justice Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin.
09 Apr, 2025
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3 min read
To Avoid Confusion, Should RCV Just Be Called Instant Runoff Elections?
In discussions with an elderly voter in Colorado about Proposition 131, the unsuccessful 2024 ballot measure to create a nonpartisan primary with ranked choice voting (RCV), in the general election, we learned something important. This individual had voted against Proposition 131, casting his mail ballot on the day he received it. A week later, he received a campaign ad mailer that Colorado’s governor and Denver’s mayor had endorsed Proposition 131, which may have influenced his decision.
11 Mar, 2025
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5 min read
The Worst Partisan Gerrymanders of the 2020s
With two post-census election cycles in the books, congressional district maps are mostly set for the remainder of the decade – which means we will know the outcomes of the vast majority of House elections before voters even cast ballots in November 2026, 2028 and 2030.
13 Dec, 2024
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9 min read
Do Politically Disengaged Voters Still Have a Civic Responsibility to Vote?
Perhaps one of the most pervasive myths in American politics is that a voter should vote because it matters to them personally.
30 Oct, 2024
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10 min read
How The GOP and Dems Are Using Third Parties to Poach Each Other's Voters
While working to activate, energize, and turnout their voters on Election Day, Democrats and Republicans are playing wedges with the pie chart, but the Dems are crying foul.
25 Sep, 2024
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4 min read
An Electoral Tie: It Could Happen, But What Happens If It Does?
The 2024 presidential election is considered extremely tight and much like the 2020 election will be decided by less than 100,000 votes in a small handful of states – if polling is any indication of the state of the election.
24 Sep, 2024
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5 min read
Real or Exaggerated: Is the 2024 Election the Most Important in US History?
In the United States, elections–and the governments they produce–are lagging indicators of public sentiment. Elections simply provide a quantitative measure of what the voters believe. The governments that emerge from elections merely establish order and discipline with respect to those policies and approaches that have already been emotionally and intellectually pioneered and adopted by the American people.
23 Sep, 2024
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8 min read