Content Categorized with "Reforms"
31 - 40 of 53 results
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Ranked Choice Absentee Ballots: Preventing the Disenfranchisement of Military and Overseas Voters
- Posted: July 21, 2011
- Author(s): Cynthia Okechukwu
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Reforms
American citizens living abroad, including men and women in uniform, often face difficulties in voting in elections at home. Military and overseas voters continue to point to short ballot turnaround times as an obstacle to voting in federal, state, and local elections. Ranked choice absentee ballots provide a legal and practical solution to this problem.
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Lower Presidential Election Turnout in Safe Republican States
- Posted: July 8, 2011
- Author(s): Neal Suidan
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Reforms, Home, FairVote
Thirteen states have voted for Republicans in every presidential election since 1980: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. This track record makes them the most consistently safe Republican strongholds in modern presidential politics. In 1988, these states’ turnout barely trailed that of the rest of the country, by 2.56%. But in every election since, these 13 states have fallen further behind. In 2008, their turnout was 6.22% behind the rest of the nation.
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Curing Our Democracy Part II: The Redistricting Connection and the Pitfalls of the District-Based Electoral Vote System
- Posted: July 7, 2011
- Author(s): Joe Sroka
- Categories: National Popular Vote, Reforms, Redistricting
Part II: The Redistricting Connection and the Pitfalls of the District-Based Electoral Vote System
This Part explores the interaction between redistricting and electoral vote allocation in Nebraska and Maine, demonstrating the negative consequences and offering solutions to these problems. See Part I for an introduction and discussion about the winner-take-all rule for allocating electoral votes.
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Curing Our Democracy Part I: Nebraska's Electoral Vote Debate and the Pitfalls of the Winner-Take-All Rule
- Posted: July 7, 2011
- Author(s): Joe Sroka
- Categories: Reforms, National Popular Vote, Redistricting
Part I: Nebraska's Electoral Vote Debate and the Pitfalls of the Winner-Take-All Rule
If put on the spot, one may have difficulty articulating similarities between the states of Nebraska and Maine: the former, corn-yielding and reliably Republican; the latter, fish-producing and predominately Democratic. Yet Maine and Nebraska are the only states in the Union that presently split presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than allocating all electoral votes to the statewide winner. In doing so, Nebraska and Maine are useful in diagnosing two conditions that plague our democracy: the current systems of partisan redistricting and presidential electoral vote allocation.
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Tunisia Moves towards Fair Elections
- Posted: June 13, 2011
- Author(s): Jais Mehaji, Arab Spring Series
- Categories: Reforms, Middle East and Africa, Elections Worldwide
This post examines the democratic prospects for post-revolutionary Tunisia, as its government delays election date to October.
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Oscar Stars Back UK's Referendum on IRV
- Posted: February 18, 2011
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Reforms, Home, FairVote
The British have a chance to reject their U.S.-style electoral system in favor of instant runoff voting (called "the alternative vote", or AV in the United Kingdom). Legislation to establish a May 5th national referendum cleared parliament this week, and polls show IRV can win. Britain has had a large rise in third party voting in recent decades, and IRV is a sensible step toward better accommodating voter choice and avoiding the "spoiler" controversy.
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Gerrymander 2011: Resources and Reform
States and localities are starting to receive the U.S. Census data they will use to redraw legislative districts in the coming year. Unfortunately, our nation's reliance upon winner-take-all elections and on single member districts for Congressional elections without national standards has left our voting process open to partisan gerrymandering. Legislators and their political allies quite literally choose their voters before voters choose them. But reformers are active in the states, and there’s legislation in Congress. Here are key resources.
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Jordan: Boycotts and Tribalism Question Election's Credibility
- Posted: November 17, 2010
- Author(s): Andy Andrianantoandro
- Categories: Reforms, Middle East and Africa, Elections Worldwide
Jordan’s parliamentary elections took place on November 9 after a year of direct rule by King Abdullah II
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From the "Non-Majority Rule" Desk: Election Day Coverage of Non-Majority Winners and Spoilers
- Posted: November 3, 2010
- Author(s): Chris Marchsteiner, The Non-Majority Rule Desk
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Reforms
Whether you are registered as a Democrat, Republican, independent, or third party, today should be a day for reflection on the flaws that obstruct true democracy in the United States.
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FairVote on Election 2010
- Posted: November 2, 2010
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting, Reforms, Home, FairVote
Some 40% of eligible voters are expected at the polls for this election. FairVote is closely tracking its reform priorities, such as a first-ever statewide general election with instant runoff voting (also known as ranked-choice voting) in North Carolina, but also provides a range of perspectives and information through its blog and twitter accounts. We're also pleased to see support for our reforms from the likes of former Vermont governor Howard Dean.