The National Popular Vote plan for general elections for president is making advances in states even as there is a rising awareness that the parties must take action to make their nomination processes more democratic. The Washington State Senate appropriately passed the National Popular Vote plan on Presidents' Day with a vote of 30-18.

The Boston Globe and smaller papers like the Daily Freemanin New York have joined newspapers like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Sun Times in endorsing the National Popular Vote plan, while a rapidly growing number of state legislators are backing the proposal. FairVote remains optimistic that the plan will be in place by 2012.

Meanwhile, FairVote's Fix The Primaries project is sparking widespread media attention to our calls for parties to institute more democratic processes to pick their presidential nominees. FairVote's Rob Richie has appeared on dozens of radio and television programs, including national programs Bloomberg Television, Democracy Now and FAIR's Counterspin.