Content Authored by Devin McCarthy
21 - 30 of 52 results
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The Future of Egyptian Democracy Hinges on the Fight Over Its Electoral Law
- Posted: March 12, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
Over two years since the Arab Spring ousted President Hosni Mubarak and brought the promise of democracy to Egypt, it is clear that that promise is threatened. While most of the media covers the protests and riots in the streets of Cairo and Port Said, the battle that may ultimately decide the fate of Egyptian democracy is being fought over Egypt's new electoral law. The key issue is proportional representation.
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Scholars like Nathaniel Persily Shouldn't Count Out Fair Voting
- Posted: March 5, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home
Many election experts ignore fair voting reform solutions because they believe them to be politically infeasible. But the only way for fair voting to become achievable is for those who know about it to start talking about the positive impact it could have on American politics.
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Italian Elections Expose Non-Proportional and Ineffective Voting System
- Posted: February 28, 2013
- Author(s): Sara Helmi, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Europe, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, International Elections, Home, Elections Worldwide
In the aftermath of Italy's general election on February 25-26, outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti asserted that "no country has such a bad electoral law as Italy." That may be an exaggeration, but there was plenty to be dissatisfied with in the election results.
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California and the Limits of Independent Redistricting Commissions with Winner-Take-All
- Posted: February 15, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Congressional Elections, Home, Redistricting
Independent redistricting continues to gain attention as the panacea for American congressional elections. But as the independent redistricting's performance in California shows, on its own it cannot resolve the most serious problems with our congressional elections. We need to combine independent redistricting with adoption of fair voting plans.
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Geography as a Failed Unit of Representation: Why Fifty States of Equal Population Is No Solution for Presidential Elections
- Posted: February 15, 2013
- Author(s): Andrea Levien, Devin McCarthy, Rob Richie
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Congressional Elections, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation, Home
The idea of electing the president with a creative alternative map of the United States in which every state has equal population has drawn sympathetic support from Atlantic writer Jim Fallows. But uneven population of states has little to do with what's broken in presidential elections, just as equal population congressional districts leave us with broken U.S. House elections. We must free ourselves from geographic boundaries and go to the real meaning of one-person, one-vote with the National Popular Vote plan for president and fair voting for Congress.
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Dubious Democracy: Updated FairVote Report Shows Dysfunctional House Elections
- Posted: February 11, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Congressional Elections, FairVote
Since 1994, FairVote has released a biannual report on American congressional elections called "Dubious Democracy." FairVote now presents its updated evaluations of the 2012 congressional elections.
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Czech Republic Holds First Popular Election for President
- Posted: January 30, 2013
- Author(s): Sara Helmi, Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Europe, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
On January 26, Czech citizens had the chance to directly elect their president for the first time since the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993. They used a national popular vote with a majority runoff to do it.
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Israeli Election Results Show Responsiveness of Proportional System
- Posted: January 24, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Middle East and Africa, Home, International Elections, Elections Worldwide
As Tuesday's Israeli elections show, proportional representation systems guarantee that voters can change their government when they are unsatisfied with its performance.
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NRCC Targets Foreshadow Power of Partisanship in 2014 Elections
- Posted: January 18, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: Congressional Elections, Home
The power of partisanship in governing outcomes had led Republicans to make their top seven targets the only Democrats representing a district were Barack Obama's 2008 presidential election trailed his national average by more than four percentage points.
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The Best Electoral College Stories of the 2012 Presidential Campaign
- Posted: January 15, 2013
- Author(s): Devin McCarthy
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Presidential Elections, Home
With the campaign season behind us, this post revisits the news stories of the 2012 presidential campaign that best captured the the distortions and unfairness caused by the winner-take-all Electoral College system.