FairVote Reforms Gain Headway

FairVote's reforms have gained steam, as voting rights events, like the Selma commemoration, have been at the forefront of media coverage. Here is the latest:

  • FairVote executive director Rob Richie and chair Krist Novoselic traveled to Oregon in early March, where they touted the benefits of reforms that included fair representation voting, ranked choice voting and the National Popular Vote plan in an event held at Reed College.
  • FairVote and the Bipartisan Policy Center have released a new report, Best Practices for Collaborative Policymaking, which examines power-sharing arrangements in state legislatures in order to identify and recommend rules/practices in state legislatures that can empower bipartisan cooperation.
  • FairVote promoted fair representation voting in court by filing an amicus curiae brief for the Voting Rights Act case brought against Yakima, Washington. Now that the case is over, FairVote staff attorney Drew Spencer blogs about the outcome and the way forward.
  • FairVote staffer Claire Daviss made an appearance on GVH Live's "Washington Weekly" program to demonstrate why an explicit right to vote is fundamental for addressing voting rights.
  • Support for an expected 2016 ranked choice voting ballot measure in Maine continues to grow. Recent media pieces include an op-ed from the West End News and this Letter to the Editor from the Portland Press Herald.
  • President Obama suggested that mandatory voting would be "transformational" in the U.S. FairVote's Rob Richie and Sarah John propose that pursuing structural reforms for the American electoral system would be even more transformative in an interview with NBC News.
  • In an article for the Huffington Post, FairVote board member Katie Ghose called for fair representation voting in the U.K., asserting that such a reform would make parliamentary elections more competitive.
  • The Washington Post  and Los Angeles Times seized upon Israel’s elections as an opportunity to analyze the country’s electoral system and highlight the benefits of  fair representation voting.
  • Check out FairVote's Blogspot site for quick access to important election reform news.

Catch the FairVote Reformer for the latest updates on systemic election reform.